Next: INTRODUCTION Up: CLASSICAL IDEAS Previous: WRAP-UP THE PRINCIPLE OF LEAST ACTION INTRODUCTION A NEW DEGREE OF REFINEMENT MINIMIZATION EXAMPLE OF A MINIMIZATION LAW: FERMAT'S LEAST TIME PRINCIPLE FOR LIGHT RELATION TO THE EQUATIONS OF MOTION THE SET OF ALL PATHS ONE CAVEAT: MATHEMATICS VS. PHYSICS, OR, STRAIGHT AHEAD AND DAMN THE TORPEDOES! MINIMIZATION AND THE SLOPE OF A VALLEY WHY THIS ...

The Principle of Least Action Selected references. Maupertuis the Principle of Least Action, which is all too commonly credited to one of the three great mathematicians, Euler, Lagrange, and Hamilton, who further developed it. This Principle is indeed one of the greatest generalizations in all physical science, although not fully appreciated until the advent of quantum mechanics in the present ...