- #1
Jimbone
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I read the following in Fowles & Cassiday's Mechanics:
"The correct motion that a body takes through space is that which minimizes the time integral of the difference between the kinetic and potential energies"
or
[itex]\delta[/itex]J = ∫ L dt = 0
I understand that this is describing the minimization of the "action" which allows us to find a unique path which a body must travel through space. But this statement strikes me as especially profound, why this quantity (T-V) ? and what does it mean that nature requires the path which minimizes it's time integral? Can anyone think of a physical situation that shows how a counter-intuitive path doesn't minimize the integral?
Thanks for your thoughts
"The correct motion that a body takes through space is that which minimizes the time integral of the difference between the kinetic and potential energies"
or
[itex]\delta[/itex]J = ∫ L dt = 0
I understand that this is describing the minimization of the "action" which allows us to find a unique path which a body must travel through space. But this statement strikes me as especially profound, why this quantity (T-V) ? and what does it mean that nature requires the path which minimizes it's time integral? Can anyone think of a physical situation that shows how a counter-intuitive path doesn't minimize the integral?
Thanks for your thoughts