Timeline for Interpretation of the action in classical mechanics
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
6 events
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| Jul 3, 2020 at 15:48 | comment | added | Cleonis | @MichaelEngelhardt I concur: in comparison to force the concept of energy is a mathematical instrument rather than physics content. To find the potential the force (as a function of spatial coordinate) is integrated over distance. The potential as a function of spatial coordinate is well-defined only when the constraint is holonomic. The takeaway, I guess, is that trying to impose absolute demarcation is ill-conceived. Rather, I suppose, one should think in terms of difference in level of abstraction. Force. Energy. Action. | |
| Jul 3, 2020 at 14:11 | comment | added | Michael Engelhardt | Declarations a la "... is purely a mathematical instrument" often indicate that there is still some work in developing a physics intuition to be accomplished. Your post goes some way towards that, thereby negating your initial declaration! One could similarly declare that energy is purely a mathematical instrument - after all, it doesn't even have a definite value, one can arbitrarily shift it by a constant and nothing physical ever changes (unless we get really deep into the general relativistic weeds). | |
| Jul 3, 2020 at 13:36 | history | edited | Cleonis | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Added animated GIF, sweeping out 7 values of the variational parameter
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| Jun 9, 2020 at 21:01 | review | First posts | |||
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| Jun 9, 2020 at 20:59 | history | edited | Cleonis | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Added remark of being active multiple years on physics.stackexchange
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| Jun 9, 2020 at 20:54 | history | answered | Cleonis | CC BY-SA 4.0 |