I need intuition for Lagrangians and action

[hideelo]

The title sort of says it all, but I'll clarify a bit. Is there any intuition for what Lagrangians are and what action is. I'm asking in all generality, not just for classical mechanics.

 

[dextercioby]

In a nutshell, they are very handy calculational tools, especially when doing quantum field theory, one of the 2 most successful theories of physics. Intuition is built once you read the proper sources. I'd consider Landau&Lifshits' classical mechanics gem.

 

[Omega0]

In a nutshell, they are very handy calculational tools, especially when doing quantum field theory, one of the 2 most successful theories of physics. Intuition is built once you read the proper sources. I'd consider Landau&Lifshits' classical mechanics gem.

The title sort of says it all, but I'll clarify a bit. Is there any intuition for what Lagrangians are and what action is. I'm asking in all generality, not just for classical mechanics.

Hi, I definitely subscribe this but I would like to add: Lagrangians are nothing else but the formulation and application of a variational principle. It works since nature seems to use the shortest path. It begins from classical mechanics of some particles, is great if you come then to field lagrangians and they are used in classical mechanics and QFT wildely.
I just wanted to mention that they are superb tool to derive differential equations and I personally recommend "Boundary and Eigenvalue Problems in Mathematical Physics" by Sagan.

 

[hideelo]

In a nutshell, they are very handy calculational tools, especially when doing quantum field theory, one of the 2 most successful theories of physics. Intuition is built once you read the proper sources. I'd consider Landau&Lifshits' classical mechanics gem.

I'll check it out