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mcmathy
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D'Alembert's Principle: Rigorous formulation using notions from modern differential geometry

Is there a rigorous definition of D'Alembert's principle of virtual dynamic work in the language of differential geometry? Some questions I'm hoping to answer are:

  1. How to view the configuration space of a set of particles as a smooth manifold.
  2. The definition a virtual displacement as a smooth manifold object such as a tangent vector or 1-form.
  3. A rigorous statement of the principle of virtual work in the language of tangent vectors or 1-forms.
  4. A rigorous derivation of Lagrange's equations from this principle.

For reference, a standard physic presentation/derivation is given here.

mcmathy
  • 101
  • 2