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The action principle

  1. Jan 30, 2007 #1

    nolanp2

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    i've been using langrangeans to solve eqns for a few months in class now but can't figure out where lagrange's equations actually come from. my problem is that i cant understand why the action integral S always takes a minimum value. can anyone help me with this?
     
    nolanp2, Jan 30, 2007
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  3. Jan 30, 2007 #2

    ZapperZ

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    What you want to study is what is known as the Calculus of Variation. This is often found in mathematical physics text/courses. The best source to start is Mary Boas's text "Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences", a book that I recommend all physics undergraduate to get. She has a whole chapter on the calculus of variation that is very easy to follow at the undergraduate level.

    Other than that, you may want to get a few sources from Edwin Taylor's page, who is a strong advocate on the teaching of the least action principle ahead of the standard Newtonian "force" concept. He has several links to his papers here:

    http://www.eftaylor.com/leastaction.html

    Zz.
     
    ZapperZ, Jan 30, 2007
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