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Physics for Game Developers

by David M. Bourg

This book is an easy-to-read introduction to game physics. It explains the basics (kinematics, kinetics, forces, particles, rigid bodies, collision response) and several applications (projectiles, ships, hovercrafts, cars, etc.).
The book is for beginners. You will need other sources for advanced topics, like rigid body contacts or joint-handling.

I have encountered several errors while reading the book, so make sure to read the errata on the book's website: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/physicsgame/

Game Physics

by David H. Eberly

This is the most profound book on game physics I have read up to now. It covers: physics basics, Newtonian and Lagrangian dynamics, deformable bodies, collision detection, collision response, numerical integration methods, linear complementarity programming, quaternions and and and…  Some more off-topic chapters are included too, like splines, NURBS or shader programming.

But even this load of information will not be enough to enable you to write a general purpose physics engines. You will need more details about constraint-handling. Have a look at my thesis if you are interested in that.

Included on the CD-ROM of the book is a snapshot of the Wild Magic Engine (LGPL source code and supporting materials). This material is also available here: http://www.geometrictools.com/

Be aware: The book contains a lot of advanced mathematics and is not always easy to read.

Dynamic Simulation of Multibody Systems

by Murilo G. Coutinho

This book explains the dynamics of particle systems, rigid body systems and articulated rigid bodies. The chapters about collision detection show how to compute intersections of primitives and for convex bodies using Mirtich's Voronoi Clip algorithm and the GJK algorithm.

Computational Dynamics

by Ahmed A. Shabana

Constraints, joints, constraint forces, inertia, Lagrange multipliers, Jacobian matrix… Have you heard these terms before? If you want to program game physics you should know them, and this book offers a good introduction to these concepts and multi-body dynamics theory.

Note: The book is written for engineers, not for game programmers. The book is focused on kinematics, joints and constraints - many topics relevant for game physics are not covered.

Physics-Based Animation

by Kenny Erleben, Jon Sporring, Knud Henriksen, Henrik Dohlman

Up to now I didn’t have the time to read all chapters of the book. But what I’ve read so far is recommendable. Among the authors is Kenny Erleben. His excellent thesis is available here.

Classical Mechanics

by Goldstein, Poole and Safko

A classic. I suppose every game physics programmer needs at least one book about Classical Mechanics. I have used this book to look up several derivations that I couldn't find in other sources.

Klassische Mechanik

by Friedhelm Kuypers

For German readers:

Wer eine Einführung in die Klassische Mechanik lieber von einem deutschen Autor lesen will, der kann in diesem Buch nachschlagen.