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Hamilton–Jacobi Equation
In physics, the Hamilton–Jacobi equation, named after William Rowan Hamilton and Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, is an alternative formulation of classical mechanics, equivalent to other formulations such as Newton's laws of motion, Lagrangian mechanics and Hamiltonian mechanics. The Hamilton–Jacobi equation is a formulation of mechanics in which the motion of a particle can be represented as a wave. In this sense, it fulfilled a long-held goal of theoretical physics (dating at least to Johann Bernoulli in the eighteenth century) of finding an analogy between the propagation of light and the motion of a particle. The wave equation followed by mechanical systems is similar to, but not identical with, the Schrödinger equation, as described below; for this reason, the Hamilton–Jacobi equation is considered the "closest approach" of classical mechanics to quantum mechanics. (particularly the discussion beginning in the last paragraph of page 491) The qualitative form of this conne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Rowan Hamilton
Sir William Rowan Hamilton (4 August 1805 – 2 September 1865) was an Irish astronomer, mathematician, and physicist who made numerous major contributions to abstract algebra, classical mechanics, and optics. His theoretical works and mathematical equations are considered fundamental to modern theoretical physics, particularly Hamiltonian mechanics, his reformulation of Lagrangian mechanics. His career included the analysis of geometrical optics, Fourier analysis, and quaternions, the last of which made him one of the founders of modern linear algebra. Hamilton was Andrews Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College Dublin. He was also the third director of Dunsink Observatory from 1827 to 1865. The Hamilton Institute at Maynooth University is named after him. Early life Hamilton was the fourth of nine children born to Sarah Hutton (1780–1817) and Archibald Hamilton (1778–1819), who lived in Dublin at 29 Dominick Street, Dublin, Dominick Street, later renumbered to 36. Ham ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Action (physics)
In physics, action is a scalar quantity that describes how the balance of kinetic versus potential energy of a physical system changes with trajectory. Action is significant because it is an input to the principle of stationary action, an approach to classical mechanics that is simpler for multiple objects. Action and the variational principle are used in Feynman's formulation of quantum mechanics and in general relativity. For systems with small values of action close to the Planck constant, quantum effects are significant. In the simple case of a single particle moving with a constant velocity (thereby undergoing uniform linear motion), the action is the momentum of the particle times the distance it moves, added up along its path; equivalently, action is the difference between the particle's kinetic energy and its potential energy, times the duration for which it has that amount of energy. More formally, action is a mathematical functional which takes the trajectory ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canonical Transformation
In Hamiltonian mechanics, a canonical transformation is a change of canonical coordinates that preserves the form of Hamilton's equations. This is sometimes known as ''form invariance''. Although Hamilton's equations are preserved, it need not preserve the explicit form of the Hamiltonian itself. Canonical transformations are useful in their own right, and also form the basis for the Hamilton–Jacobi equations (a useful method for calculating conserved quantities) and Liouville's theorem (itself the basis for classical statistical mechanics). Since Lagrangian mechanics is based on generalized coordinates, transformations of the coordinates do not affect the form of Lagrange's equations and, hence, do not affect the form of Hamilton's equations if the momentum is simultaneously changed by a Legendre transformation into P_i = \frac\ , where \left\ are the new co‑ordinates, grouped in canonical conjugate pairs of momenta P_i and corresponding positions Q_i, for i = 1, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Generating Function (physics)
In physics, and more specifically in Hamiltonian mechanics, a generating function is, loosely, a function whose partial derivatives generate the differential equations that determine a system's dynamics. Common examples are the partition function of statistical mechanics, the Hamiltonian, and the function which acts as a bridge between two sets of canonical variables when performing a canonical transformation. In canonical transformations There are four basic generating functions, summarized by the following table: Example Sometimes a given Hamiltonian can be turned into one that looks like the harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian, which is H = aP^2 + bQ^2. For example, with the Hamiltonian H = \frac + \frac, where is the generalized momentum and is the generalized coordinate, a good canonical transformation to choose would be This turns the Hamiltonian into H = \frac + \frac, which is in the form of the harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian. The generating function for this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gateaux Derivative
In mathematics, the Gateaux differential or Gateaux derivative is a generalization of the concept of directional derivative in differential calculus. Named after René Gateaux, it is defined for functions between locally convex topological vector spaces such as Banach spaces. Like the Fréchet derivative on a Banach space, the Gateaux differential is often used to formalize the functional derivative commonly used in the calculus of variations and physics. Unlike other forms of derivatives, the Gateaux differential of a function may be a nonlinear operator. However, often the definition of the Gateaux differential also requires that it be a continuous linear transformation. Some authors, such as , draw a further distinction between the Gateaux differential (which may be nonlinear) and the Gateaux derivative (which they take to be linear). In most applications, continuous linearity follows from some more primitive condition which is natural to the particular setting, such a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virtual Displacement
In analytical mechanics, a branch of applied mathematics and physics, a virtual displacement (or infinitesimal variation) \delta \gamma shows how the mechanical system's trajectory can ''hypothetically'' (hence the term ''virtual'') deviate very slightly from the actual trajectory \gamma of the system without violating the system's constraints. For every time instant t, \delta \gamma(t) is a vector tangential to the configuration space at the point \gamma(t). The vectors \delta \gamma(t) show the directions in which \gamma(t) can "go" without breaking the constraints. For example, the virtual displacements of the system consisting of a single particle on a two-dimensional surface fill up the entire tangent plane, assuming there are no additional constraints. If, however, the constraints require that all the trajectories \gamma pass through the given point \mathbf at the given time \tau, i.e. \gamma(\tau) = \mathbf, then \delta\gamma (\tau) = 0. Notations Let M be the configu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smooth Manifolds
In mathematics, a differentiable manifold (also differential manifold) is a type of manifold that is locally similar enough to a vector space to allow one to apply calculus. Any manifold can be described by a collection of charts (atlas (topology), atlas). One may then apply ideas from calculus while working within the individual charts, since each chart lies within a vector space to which the usual rules of calculus apply. If the charts are suitably compatible (namely, the transition from one chart to another is Differentiable function, differentiable), then computations done in one chart are valid in any other differentiable chart. In formal terms, a differentiable manifold is a topological manifold with a globally defined differential structure. Any topological manifold can be given a differential structure locally by using the homeomorphisms in its atlas and the standard differential structure on a vector space. To induce a global differential structure on the local coordinate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Momentum
In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (: momenta or momentums; more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass and is its velocity (also a vector quantity), then the object's momentum (from Latin '' pellere'' "push, drive") is: \mathbf = m \mathbf. In the International System of Units (SI), the unit of measurement of momentum is the kilogram metre per second (kg⋅m/s), which is dimensionally equivalent to the newton-second. Newton's second law of motion states that the rate of change of a body's momentum is equal to the net force acting on it. Momentum depends on the frame of reference, but in any inertial frame of reference, it is a ''conserved'' quantity, meaning that if a closed system is not affected by external forces, its total momentum does not change. Momentum is also conserved in special relativity (with a mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Initial Value Problem
In multivariable calculus, an initial value problem (IVP) is an ordinary differential equation together with an initial condition which specifies the value of the unknown function at a given point in the domain. Modeling a system in physics or other sciences frequently amounts to solving an initial value problem. In that context, the differential initial value is an equation which specifies how the system evolves with time given the initial conditions of the problem. Definition An initial value problem is a differential equation :y'(t) = f(t, y(t)) with f\colon \Omega \subset \mathbb \times \mathbb^n \to \mathbb^n where \Omega is an open set of \mathbb \times \mathbb^n, together with a point in the domain of f :(t_0, y_0) \in \Omega, called the initial condition. A solution to an initial value problem is a function y that is a solution to the differential equation and satisfies :y(t_0) = y_0. In higher dimensions, the differential equation is replaced with a family of eq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hessian Matrix
In mathematics, the Hessian matrix, Hessian or (less commonly) Hesse matrix is a square matrix of second-order partial derivatives of a scalar-valued Function (mathematics), function, or scalar field. It describes the local curvature of a function of many variables. The Hessian matrix was developed in the 19th century by the German mathematician Otto Hesse, Ludwig Otto Hesse and later named after him. Hesse originally used the term "functional determinants". The Hessian is sometimes denoted by H or \nabla\nabla or \nabla^2 or \nabla\otimes\nabla or D^2. Definitions and properties Suppose f : \R^n \to \R is a function taking as input a vector \mathbf \in \R^n and outputting a scalar f(\mathbf) \in \R. If all second-order partial derivatives of f exist, then the Hessian matrix \mathbf of f is a square n \times n matrix, usually defined and arranged as \mathbf H_f= \begin \dfrac & \dfrac & \cdots & \dfrac \\[2.2ex] \dfrac & \dfrac & \cdots & \dfrac \\[2.2ex] \vdots & \vdot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dot Product
In mathematics, the dot product or scalar productThe term ''scalar product'' means literally "product with a Scalar (mathematics), scalar as a result". It is also used for other symmetric bilinear forms, for example in a pseudo-Euclidean space. Not to be confused with scalar multiplication. is an algebraic operation that takes two equal-length sequences of numbers (usually coordinate vectors), and returns a single number. In Euclidean geometry, the dot product of the Cartesian coordinates of two Euclidean vector, vectors is widely used. It is often called the inner product (or rarely the projection product) of Euclidean space, even though it is not the only inner product that can be defined on Euclidean space (see ''Inner product space'' for more). It should not be confused with the cross product. Algebraically, the dot product is the sum of the Product (mathematics), products of the corresponding entries of the two sequences of numbers. Geometrically, it is the product of the Euc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
