The Feynman lectures on physics: Mainly electromagnetism and matter

The Feynman lectures on physics: Mainly electromagnetism and matter PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780201021165
Category : Electromagnetism
Languages : en
Pages :

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The Feynman lectures on physics: Mainly electromagnetism and matter

The Feynman lectures on physics: Mainly electromagnetism and matter PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780201021165
Category : Electromagnetism
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


The Principle of Least Action

The Principle of Least Action PDF Author: Alberto Rojo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521869021
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
This text brings history and the key fields of physics together to present a unique technical discussion of the principles of least action.

The Principle of Least Action in Geometry and Dynamics

The Principle of Least Action in Geometry and Dynamics PDF Author: Karl Friedrich Siburg
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9783540219446
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
New variational methods by Aubry, Mather, and Mane, discovered in the last twenty years, gave deep insight into the dynamics of convex Lagrangian systems. This book shows how this Principle of Least Action appears in a variety of settings (billiards, length spectrum, Hofer geometry, modern symplectic geometry). Thus, topics from modern dynamical systems and modern symplectic geometry are linked in a new and sometimes surprising way. The central object is Mather’s minimal action functional. The level is for graduate students onwards, but also for researchers in any of the subjects touched in the book.

The Lazy Universe

The Lazy Universe PDF Author: Jennifer Coopersmith
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191060720
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
This is a rare book on a rare topic: it is about 'action' and the Principle of Least Action. A surprisingly well-kept secret, these ideas are at the heart of physical science and engineering. Physics is well known as being concerned with grand conservatory principles (e.g. the conservation of energy) but equally important is the optimization principle (such as getting somewhere in the shortest time or with the least resistance). The book explains: why an optimization principle underlies physics, what action is, what `the Hamiltonian' is, and how new insights into energy, space, and time arise. It assumes some background in the physical sciences, at the level of undergraduate science, but it is not a textbook. The requisite derivations and worked examples are given but may be skim-read if desired. The author draws from Cornelius Lanczos's book "The Variational Principles of Mechanics" (1949 and 1970). Lanczos was a brilliant mathematician and educator, but his book was for a postgraduate audience. The present book is no mere copy with the difficult bits left out - it is original, and a popularization. It aims to explain ideas rather than achieve technical competence, and to show how Least Action leads into the whole of physics.

Feynman's Thesis

Feynman's Thesis PDF Author: Richard Phillips Feynman
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9812563660
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
Richard Feynman's never previously published doctoral thesis formed the heart of much of his brilliant and profound work in theoretical physics. Entitled ?The Principle of Least Action in Quantum Mechanics," its original motive was to quantize the classical action-at-a-distance electrodynamics. Because that theory adopted an overall space?time viewpoint, the classical Hamiltonian approach used in the conventional formulations of quantum theory could not be used, so Feynman turned to the Lagrangian function and the principle of least action as his points of departure.The result was the path integral approach, which satisfied ? and transcended ? its original motivation, and has enjoyed great success in renormalized quantum field theory, including the derivation of the ubiquitous Feynman diagrams for elementary particles. Path integrals have many other applications, including atomic, molecular, and nuclear scattering, statistical mechanics, quantum liquids and solids, Brownian motion, and noise theory. It also sheds new light on fundamental issues like the interpretation of quantum theory because of its new overall space?time viewpoint.The present volume includes Feynman's Princeton thesis, the related review article ?Space?Time Approach to Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics? [Reviews of Modern Physics 20 (1948), 367?387], Paul Dirac's seminal paper ?The Lagrangian in Quantum Mechanics'' [Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion, Band 3, Heft 1 (1933)], and an introduction by Laurie M Brown.

Variational Principles in Dynamics and Quantum Theory

Variational Principles in Dynamics and Quantum Theory PDF Author: Wolfgang Yourgrau
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 9780486637730
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Historical, theoretical survey with many insights, much hard-to-find material. Covers Hamilton's principle, Hamilton-Jacobi equation, relationship to quantum theory and wave mechanics, and more.

Variational Principles in Classical Mechanics

Variational Principles in Classical Mechanics PDF Author: Douglas Cline
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780998837277
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Two dramatically different philosophical approaches to classical mechanics were proposed during the 17th - 18th centuries. Newton developed his vectorial formulation that uses time-dependent differential equations of motion to relate vector observables like force and rate of change of momentum. Euler, Lagrange, Hamilton, and Jacobi, developed powerful alternative variational formulations based on the assumption that nature follows the principle of least action. These variational formulations now play a pivotal role in science and engineering.This book introduces variational principles and their application to classical mechanics. The relative merits of the intuitive Newtonian vectorial formulation, and the more powerful variational formulations are compared. Applications to a wide variety of topics illustrate the intellectual beauty, remarkable power, and broad scope provided by use of variational principles in physics.The second edition adds discussion of the use of variational principles applied to the following topics:(1) Systems subject to initial boundary conditions(2) The hierarchy of related formulations based on action, Lagrangian, Hamiltonian, and equations of motion, to systems that involve symmetries.(3) Non-conservative systems.(4) Variable-mass systems.(5) The General Theory of Relativity.Douglas Cline is a Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York.

The Theoretical Minimum

The Theoretical Minimum PDF Author: Leonard Susskind
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465038921
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 165

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Book Description
A master teacher presents the ultimate introduction to classical mechanics for people who are serious about learning physics "Beautifully clear explanations of famously 'difficult' things," -- Wall Street Journal If you ever regretted not taking physics in college -- or simply want to know how to think like a physicist -- this is the book for you. In this bestselling introduction to classical mechanics, physicist Leonard Susskind and hacker-scientist George Hrabovsky offer a first course in physics and associated math for the ardent amateur. Challenging, lucid, and concise, The Theoretical Minimum provides a tool kit for amateur scientists to learn physics at their own pace.

The Development of the Action Principle

The Development of the Action Principle PDF Author: Walter Dittrich
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030691055
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description
This book describes the historical development of the principle of stationary action from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Reference is made to the most important contributors to this topic, in particular Bernoullis, Leibniz, Euler, Lagrange and Laplace. The leading theme is how the action principle is applied to problems in classical physics such as hydrodynamics, electrodynamics and gravity, extending also to the modern formulation of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, especially quantum electrodynamics. A critical analysis of operator versus c-number field theory is given. The book contains many worked examples. In particular, the term "vacuum" is scrutinized.The book is aimed primarily at actively working researchers, graduate students and historians interested in the philosophical interpretation and evolution of physics; in particular, in understanding the action principle and its application to a wide range of natural phenomena.

An Introduction to the Calculus of Variations

An Introduction to the Calculus of Variations PDF Author: L.A. Pars
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486165957
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Clear, rigorous introductory treatment covers applications to geometry, dynamics, and physics. It focuses upon problems with one independent variable, connecting abstract theory with its use in concrete problems. 1962 edition.