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The lazy universe : an introduction to the principle of least action /

The Principle of Least Action underlies all physics and leads into quantum mechanics and Einstein's Relativity. There are some textbooks that do the calculations, and one book with nice pictures, but no book (before this one) that explains what 'action' is, and why nature follows this...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Clasificación:Libro Electrónico
Autor principal: Coopersmith, Jennifer (Autor)
Formato: Electrónico eBook
Idioma:Inglés
Publicado: Oxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, United States of America : Oxford University Press, 2017.
Edición:First edition.
Temas:
Acceso en línea:Texto completo
Tabla de Contenidos:
  • Cover; Preface; Contents; List of Figures; 1 Introduction; 2 Antecedents; 3 Mathematics and physics preliminaries: of hills and plains and other things; 4 The Principle of Virtual Work; 5 D'Alembert's Principle; 6 Lagrangian Mechanics; 7 Hamiltonian Mechanics; 8 The whole of physics; 9 Final words; A1.1 Newton's Laws of Motion; A2.1 Portraits of the physicists; A3.1 Reversible displacements; A6.1 Worked examples in Lagrangian Mechanics; A6.2 Proof that T is a function of v2 ; A6.3 Energy conservation and the homogeneity of time; A6.4 The method of Lagrange Multipliers.
  • A6.5 Generalized ForcesA7.1 Hamilton's Transformation, examples; A7.2 Demonstration that the pi s are independent coordinates; A7.3 Worked examples in Hamiltonian Mechanics; A7.4 Incompressibility of the phase fluid; A7.5 Energy conservation in extended phase space; A7.6 Link between the action, S, and the 'circulation'; A7.7 Transformation equations linking p and q via S; A7.8 Infinitesimal canonical transformations; A7.9 Perpendicularity of wavefronts and rays; A7.10 Problems solved using the Hamilton-Jacobi Equation; A7.11 Quasi refractive index in mechanics.
  • A7.12 Einstein's link between Action and the de Broglie wavesBibliography and Further Reading; Index.