Elementary Continuum Mechanics for Everyone - and Some More:vol. 2: buckling: introduction to the finite element method mathematical preliminaries: fourth extended edition

Quite trivially, Continuum mechanics per se deals with the description of deformations of three-dimensional continua i.e. models whose properties are independent of scale in that the continuum does not possess a structure. Thus, continuum mechanics does not try to model the atomic structure of the involved materials- perhaps not even the crystalline or spongy, or lumpy structure- but offers a "smeared-out" version of the real world. Also, the desired description depends very much on the needs of the discipline in question