How does classical mechanics change if motion was not infinitely differentiable?

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
2 replies · 2K views
Pinu7
Messages
275
Reaction score
5
Many "theoretical mechanicians" seem to awesome that motion is a [tex]{C^\infty }[/tex] function(at least that is how I learned it). However, it seems like the postulates of Newtonian/Lagrangian/Hamiltonian/Vakonomic mechanics seem to "work" in the general case where only the motion is a [tex]{C^2}[/tex](ie the acceleration always exists, but the jerk does not).

My question is how classical mechanics would change if we assume the general case where the motion of a particle is only guaranteed to be twice differentiable? Are there any MAJOR changes?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Are you talking about "Achilles and the tortoise" and Zeno's paradoxes?