Download or read book Variational Principles in Physics written by Jean-Louis Basdevant and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-12-18 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Variational principles have proven to be surprisingly fertile. For example, Fermat used variational methods to demonstrate that light follows the fastest route from one point to another, an idea which came to be a cornerstone of geometrical optics. This book explains variational principles and charts their use throughout modern physics. It examines the analytical mechanics of Lagrange and Hamilton, the basic tools of any physicist. The book also offers simple but rich first impressions of Einstein’s General Relativity, Feynman’s Quantum Mechanics, and more that reveal amazing interconnections between various fields of physics.