All Questions
239
questions
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Are there any experiments that examine Hamilton's Principle directly?
Or can it be examined?
I 'd glad if you can share some ideas about "principles" in general.
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3
votes
1
answer
82
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Does quasi-symmetry preserve the solution of the equation of motion?
In some field theory textbooks, such as the CFT Yellow Book (P40), the authors claim that a theory has a certain symmetry, which means that the action of the theory does not change under the symmetry ...
- 91
1
vote
2
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111
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Does Hamilton's principle allow a path to have both a process of time forward evolution and a process of time backward evolution?
This is from Analytical Mechanics by Louis Hand et al. The proof is about Maupertuis' principle. The author seems to say that Hamilton's principle allow a path to have both a process of time forward ...
- 207k
3
votes
4
answers
1k
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Is there an error in Susskinds' derivation of Euler-Lagrange equations?
First, I believe there is a trivial error. The second equation should have another $\Delta t$ multiplying everything on the right. It is divided out later when the equation I set equal to 0.
Given ...
2
votes
1
answer
333
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How do we get Maupertuis Principle from Hamilton's Principle?
Maupertuis principle says that if we know the initial and final coordinates but not time, the total energy and the fact that energy is conserved, we can choose the "right" path from all mathematically ...
CommunityBot
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2
votes
1
answer
265
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Clarifications regarding the Maupertuis/Jacobi principle
I'm slightly confused regarding the Maupertuis' Principle. I have read the Wikipedia page but the confusion is even in that derivation. So, say we have a Lagrangian described by $\textbf{q}=(q^1,...q^...
CommunityBot
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148
votes
8
answers
18k
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Calculus of variations -- how does it make sense to vary the position and the velocity independently?
In the calculus of variations, particularly Lagrangian mechanics, people often say we vary the position and the velocity independently. But velocity is the derivative of position, so how can you treat ...
- 21.4k
2
votes
0
answers
73
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Why can't we treat the Lagrangian as a function of the generalized positions and momenta and vary that? [duplicate]
Some background: In Lagrangian mechanics, to obtain the EL equations, one varies the action (I will be dropping the time dependence since I don't think it's relevant) $$S[q^i(t)] = \int dt \, L(q^i, \...
- 93
3
votes
3
answers
1k
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Why the Lagrangian of a free particle cannot depend on the position or time, explicitly?
On p. 5 in $\S$3 pf the book of Mechanics by Landau & Lifshitz, it is claimed that
[...] for a free particle, the homogeneity of space and time implies
that Lagrangian cannot depend on ...
- 12.1k
2
votes
4
answers
2k
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What are the boundary conditions associated to this lagrangian?
Suppose that $L(q^i, \dot{q}^i)$ is a standard and well behaved lagrangian associated to some Dirichlet boundary conditions : $q^i(t_1) = q_1^i$ and $q^i(t_2) = q_2^i$. Now I have this new lagrangian ...
- 207k
7
votes
3
answers
2k
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Something fishy with canonical momentum fixed at boundary in classical action
There's something fishy that I don't get clearly with the action principle of classical mechanics, and the endpoints that need to be fixed (boundary conditions). Please, take note that I'm not ...
- 7,592
0
votes
1
answer
76
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In Lagrangian mechanics, do we need to filter out impossible solutions after solving?
The principle behind Lagrangian mechanics is that the true path is one that makes the action stationary. Of course, there are many absurd paths that are not physically realizable as paths. For ...
- 207k
0
votes
0
answers
88
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Deeper explanation for Principle of Stationary Action [duplicate]
The Principle of Stationary Action (sometimes called Principle of Least Action and other names) is successfully applied in a wide variety of fields in physics. It can often can be be used to derive ...
- 207k
-2
votes
1
answer
108
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Why the choice of Configuration Space in Hamilton's Principle is $(q, \dot{q}, t)$? [closed]
In most physics books I've read, such as Goldstein's Classical Mechanics, the explanation of Hamilton's principle took into consideration the equation (1) known as Action:
$$\displaystyle I = \int_{...
- 113
3
votes
3
answers
130
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Is there a proof that a physical system with a *stationary* action principle cannot always be modelled by a *least* action principle?
I'm aware that with Lagrangian mechanics, the path of the system is one that makes the action stationary. I've also read that its possible to find a choice of Lagrangian such that minimization is ...
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