Lagrangian mechanics [SEP] named after
Lagrangian mechanics
Lagrangian mechanics is a reformulation of classical mechanics, introduced by the Italian-French mathematician and astronomer Joseph-Louis Lagrange in 1788.
In Lagrangian mechanics, the trajectory of a system of particles is derived by solving the Lagrange equations in one of two forms, either the "Lagrange equations of the first kind", which treat constraints explicitly as extra equations, often using Lagrange multipliers; or the "Lagrange equations of the second kind", which incorporate the constraints directly by judicious choice of generalized coordinates.
's action is proportional to the area of the sheet which the string traces as it travels through spacetime.
It is named after Japanese physicists Yoichiro Nambu and Tetsuo Goto.
Background.
Background Relativistic Lagrangian mechanics.
The basic principle of Lagrangian mechanics, the principle of stationary action, is that an object subjected to outside influences will "choose" a path which makes a certain quantity, the "action", an extremum. The action is a functional, a mathematical relationship which takes an entire path and produces a