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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.
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.
Action principles are "integral" approaches rather than the "differential" approach of Newtonian mechanics.[2]: 162 The core ideas are based on energy, paths, an energy function called the Lagrangian along paths, and selection of a path according to the "action", a continuous sum or integral of the Lagrangian along the path.
In this formulation, particles travel every possible path between the initial and final states; the probability of a specific final state is obtained by summing over all possible trajectories leading to it. In the classical regime, the path integral formulation cleanly reproduces Hamilton's principle, and Fermat's principle in optics.
Numerous other concepts and objects in mechanics, such as Hamilton's principle, Hamilton's principal function, the Hamilton–Jacobi equation, Cayley-Hamilton theorem are named after Hamilton. The Hamiltonian is the name of both a function (classical) and an operator (quantum) in physics, and, in a different sense, a term from graph theory .
This has the form of Hamilton's principle in classical mechanics, except that the time dimension is missing: the third spatial coordinate in optics takes the role of time in mechanics. [33] The optical Lagrangian is the function which, when integrated w.r.t. the parameter of the path, yields the OPL; it is the foundation of Lagrangian and ...
In physics, the Hamilton–Jacobi equation, named after William Rowan Hamilton and Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, is an alternative formulation of classical mechanics, equivalent to other formulations such as Newton's laws of motion, Lagrangian mechanics and Hamiltonian mechanics.