Can Conservation Laws be Derived from Symmetry and Newton's Laws?

Join the discussion
Registration is free. Start your own thread to ask a follow-up.
2 replies · 2K views
xboy
Messages
133
Reaction score
0
Is it possible to show directly from Newton's Laws that conservation of momentum and energy follow from principles of symmetry?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
xboy said:
Is it possible to show directly from Newton's Laws that conservation of momentum and energy follow from principles of symmetry?

I think you also need to postulate that there is some variational principle. After all, frictional systems can be time invariant, and nevertheless, there is no conservation of energy.