Hamilton's principle
In physics, Hamilton's principle is William Rowan Hamilton's formulation of the principle of stationary action. It states that the dynamics of a physical system are determined by a variational problem for a functional based on a single function, the Lagrangian, which may contain all physical information concerning the system and the forces acting on it. The variational problem is equivalent to and allows for the derivation of the "differential" equations of motion of the physical system. Although formulated originally for classical mechanics, Hamilton's principle also applies to classical fields such as the electromagnetic and gravitational fields, and plays an important role in quantum mechanics, quantum field theory and criticality theories.
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physics
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William Rowan Hamilton
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principle of stationary action
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dynamics
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variational problem
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functional
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Lagrangian
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differential
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equations of motion
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classical mechanics
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fields
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electromagnetic
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gravitational
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fields
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quantum mechanics
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quantum field theory
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Hamilton's principle
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Hamilton's principle
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named after