The variational principle
The variational principle
This chapter looks at the equations of motion of a particle and describes the conditions that they present. It is not always a minimum, more commonly a saddle point. This chapter follows the ancient method of Euler and Lagrange to derive this fact. The quantum mechanical origin of this principle is also outlined: the average over all paths is dominated by the extremum in the limit of small Planck's constant.
Keywords: Planck's constant, Lagrange, saddle point
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