The principle of least action : history and physics /

Rogo (Oakland Univ.) and Bloch (Univ. of Michigan) provide a historical scientific review of the principle of least action. Nature is ascribed with the property of minimizing certain physical quantities during any process that describes change. Some forms of the principle follow the least path or least time of travel, such as Fermat's principle regarding the movement of light between two points. In 1747, the French mathematician Maupertuis asserted that dynamic motion takes place with minimum action. But the definition of action was left vague; it eventually came to be defined by dimensions of length times momentum or energy multiplied by time. The final word on the accepted formulation belongs to the Irish mathematician William Hamilton, who related the evolution of a dynamic system to the minimization of energy in time; this principle lies at the heart of the mathematic formulation of modern quantum mechanics. The authors provide a strong overview of this foundational principle, with explanations accessible to most physics students with a solid grounding in mathematics. Enhancing this text's utility to students are line drawings throughout the text, mathematic appendixes, and a useful list of references. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. --Nanjundiah Sadanand, Central Connecticut State University