Perfect Form: Variational Principles, Methods, and Applications in Elementary Physics - Brossura

Lemons, Don S.

 
9780691026633: Perfect Form: Variational Principles, Methods, and Applications in Elementary Physics
Brossura
ISBN 10: 0691026637 ISBN 13: 9780691026633
Casa editrice: Princeton University Press, 1997

Sinossi

What does the path taken by a ray of light share with the trajectory of a thrown baseball and the curve of a wheat stalk bending in the breeze? Each is the subject of a different study yet all are optimal shapes; light rays minimize travel time while a thrown baseball minimizes action. All natural curves and shapes, and many artificial ones, manifest such "perfect form" because physical principles can be expressed as a statement requiring some important physical quantity to be mathematically maximum, minimum, or stationary. Perfect Form introduces the basic "variational" principles of classical physics (least time, least potential energy, least action, and Hamilton's principle), develops the mathematical language most suited to their application (the calculus of variations), and presents applications from the physics usually encountered in introductory course sequences.


The text gradually unfolds the physics and mathematics. While other treatments postulate Hamilton's principle and deduce all results from it, Perfect Form begins with the most plausible and restricted variational principles and develops more powerful ones through generalization. One selection of text and problems even constitutes a non-calculus of variations introduction to variational methods, while the mathematics more generally employed extends only to solving simple ordinary differential equations. Perfect Form is designed to supplement existing classical mechanics texts and to present variational principles and methods to students who approach the subject for the first time.

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Informazioni sull?autore

Don S. Lemons is Associate Professor of Physics at Bethel College of North Newton, Kansas.

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Editore
Princeton University Press
Data di pubblicazione
1997
Lingua
Inglese
ISBN 10 
0691026637
ISBN 13 
9780691026633
Rilegatura
Copertina flessibile
Numero di pagine
136
Contatto del produttore
non disponibile
Persona responsabile
gpsr@libri.de
gpsr@libri.de

Europaallee 1
Bad Hersfeld
36244
Germania

Altre edizioni note dello stesso titolo

9780691026640: Perfect Form: Variational Principles, Methods, and Applications in Elementary Physics

Edizione in evidenza

ISBN 10:  0691026645 ISBN 13:  9780691026640
Casa editrice: Princeton Univ Pr, 1997
Rilegato