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What are degrees of Freedom in the Lagrangian/Hamiltonian formulation of classical mechanics?
I've been getting very confused trying to understand this concept.
Would six degrees of freedom mean up, down, left, right, back & forward?
I've seen it said that 3 degrees of freedom mean the x, y & z axes, so my above sentence is really only 3 degrees of freedom, is it?
Then, I seen the Susskind classical mechanics lecture claim there are 6 degrees of freedom, x, y & z axes & then position, velocity & acceleration.
But, then I read in a previous physicsforums post the claim that velocity & acceleration are not dimensions ergo they are not degrees of freedom!
The wikipedia article is not in the least helpful & I've tried to watch the nptelhrd lectures to only get more confused.
What does it mean to have a degree of freedom constricted also?
Thanks it would be really helpful for somebody to shed some light on this idea for me.
I've been getting very confused trying to understand this concept.
Would six degrees of freedom mean up, down, left, right, back & forward?
I've seen it said that 3 degrees of freedom mean the x, y & z axes, so my above sentence is really only 3 degrees of freedom, is it?
Then, I seen the Susskind classical mechanics lecture claim there are 6 degrees of freedom, x, y & z axes & then position, velocity & acceleration.
But, then I read in a previous physicsforums post the claim that velocity & acceleration are not dimensions ergo they are not degrees of freedom!
The wikipedia article is not in the least helpful & I've tried to watch the nptelhrd lectures to only get more confused.
What does it mean to have a degree of freedom constricted also?
Thanks it would be really helpful for somebody to shed some light on this idea for me.
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