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The general results presented above for Hamilton's principle can be applied to optics using the Lagrangian defined in Fermat's principle.The Euler-Lagrange equations with parameter σ =x 3 and N=2 applied to Fermat's principle result in ˙ = with k = 1, 2 and where L is the optical Lagrangian and ˙ = /.
Hamilton's principle states that the true evolution q(t) of a system described by N generalized coordinates q = (q 1, q 2, ..., q N) between two specified states q 1 = q(t 1) and q 2 = q(t 2) at two specified times t 1 and t 2 is a stationary point (a point where the variation is zero) of the action functional [] = ((), ˙ (),) where (, ˙,) is the Lagrangian function for the system.
Hamilton's principle is still valid even if the coordinates L is expressed in are not independent, here r k, but the constraints are still assumed to be holonomic. [37] As always the end points are fixed δr k (t 1) = δr k (t 2) = 0 for all k. What cannot be done is to simply equate the coefficients of δr k to zero because the δr k are not ...
A related problem is posed by Fermat's principle: light follows the path of shortest optical length connecting two points, which depends upon the material of the medium. One corresponding concept in mechanics is the principle of least/stationary action. Many important problems involve functions of several variables.
The pinhole camera model describes the mathematical relationship between the coordinates of a point in three-dimensional space and its projection onto the image plane of an ideal pinhole camera, where the camera aperture is described as a point and no lenses are used to focus light.
Variational principles are found among earlier ideas in surveying and optics.The rope stretchers of ancient Egypt stretched corded ropes between two points to measure the path which minimized the distance of separation, and Claudius Ptolemy, in his Geographia (Bk 1, Ch 2), emphasized that one must correct for "deviations from a straight course"; in ancient Greece Euclid states in his ...
Hamilton's optico-mechanical analogy is a conceptual parallel between trajectories in classical mechanics and wavefronts in optics, introduced by William Rowan Hamilton around 1831. [1] It may be viewed as linking Huygens' principle of optics with Maupertuis' principle of mechanics.
In physics, Hamiltonian mechanics is a reformulation of Lagrangian mechanics that emerged in 1833. Introduced by Sir William Rowan Hamilton, [1] Hamiltonian mechanics replaces (generalized) velocities ˙ used in Lagrangian mechanics with (generalized) momenta.