Abstract
Our approach so far has emphasized the Hamiltonian point of view. However, there is an independent point of view, that of Lagrangian mechanics, based on variational principles. This alternative viewpoint, computational convenience, and the fact that the Lagrangian is very useful in covariant relativistic theories can be used as arguments for the importance of the Lagrangian formulation. Ironically, it was Hamilton [1834] who discovered the variational basis of Lagrangian mechanics.
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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Marsden, J.E., Ratiu, T.S. (1999). Lagrangian Mechanics. In: Introduction to Mechanics and Symmetry. Texts in Applied Mathematics, vol 17. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-21792-5_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-21792-5_7
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-3143-6
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-21792-5
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