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Lazy Universe : An Introduction to the Principle of Least Action by Jennifer Coopersmith (2017, Hardcover)

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The Lazy Universe by Jennifer Coopersmith. This is a rare book on a rare topic: it is about 'action' and the Principle of Least Action. A surprisingly well-kept secret, these ideas are at the heart of physical science and engineering.

About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherOxford University Press, Incorporated

ISBN-100198743041

ISBN-139780198743040

eBay Product ID (ePID)237703358

Product Key Features

Book TitleLazy Universe : an Introduction to the Principle of Least Action

Number of Pages280 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2017

TopicGeneral, Physics / Mathematical & Computational

IllustratorYes

GenreScience

AuthorJennifer Coopersmith

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.9 in

Item Weight17.9 Oz

Item Length8.7 in

Item Width5.9 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2016-953473

TitleLeadingThe

Reviews"Inspired by the monumental work of Lanczos, Jennifer Coopersmith has constructed a beautiful exposition of the philosophical basis underlying classical mechanics. It has enough technical meat to be interesting to an expert, while remaining accessible to a novice." -- Gerald Jay Sussman, Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "This is a well written and comprehensible presentation of some of the most fascinating and fundamental principles which theoretical physics has uncovered. The author has done a great job in making accessible 'as if-laws' to a broader audience." --Helmut Pulte, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany "This book has a general audience: every practicing physicist -- and a specific audience: every physics textbook writer. Envision and teach physics powerfully and directly with energy, action, and the Principle of Least Action." -- Edwin F. Taylor, Senior Research Scientist Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "[C]ontagious enthusiasm and a sense of humour unusual in this kind of literature ... The first part is excellent reading for anybody with an interest in the history and philosophy of science. I also recommend the book to students in physics and mathematics who are willing to dig deeper into this subject after taking classes in analytical mechanics, and I believe that it is accessible to any student in STEM disciplines. Practitioners in physics from any sub-discipline will enjoy a refresh and a different point of view that puts their tools of the trade in a broader context." -- CERN Courier "Inspired by the monumental work of Lanczos, Jennifer Coopersmith has constructed a beautiful exposition of the philosophical basis underlying classical mechanics. It has enough technical meat to be interesting to an expert, while remaining accessible to a novice." -- Gerald Jay Sussman, Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "This is a well written and comprehensible presentation of some of the most fascinating and fundamental principles which theoretical physics has uncovered. The author has done a great job in making accessible 'as if-laws' to a broader audience." --Helmut Pulte, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany "This book has a general audience: every practicing physicist -- and a specific audience: every physics textbook writer. Envision and teach physics powerfully and directly with energy, action, and the Principle of Least Action." -- Edwin F. Taylor, Senior Research Scientist Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "Jennifer Coopersmith has written a most welcome book, the first historically and philosophically motivated full study since two classics written nearly a half-century ago... [She] has attempted and succeeded admirably I believe in her aim to write a modern book on the history and philosophy of the action principles, as well as to give the technical details." -- American Journal of Physics"Any careful reader of this book will seek out the monograph without fail and benefit from its perusal... I have no hesitations in recommending this book to any physical scientist or engineer who wants to understand variational principles better." -- Contemporary Physics"Recommended." -- CHOICE"[C]ontagious enthusiasm and a sense of humour unusual in this kind of literature ... The first part is excellent reading for anybody with an interest in the history and philosophy of science. I also recommend the book to students in physics and mathematics who are willing to dig deeper into this subject after taking classes in analytical mechanics, and I believe that it is accessible to any student in STEM disciplines. Practitioners in physics from any sub-discipline will enjoy a refresh and a different point of view that puts their tools of the trade in a broader context." -- CERN Courier"Inspired by the monumental work of Lanczos, Jennifer Coopersmith has constructed a beautiful exposition of the philosophical basis underlying classical mechanics. It has enough technical meat to be interesting to an expert, while remaining accessible to a novice." -- Gerald Jay Sussman, Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology"This is a well written and comprehensible presentation of some of the most fascinating and fundamental principles which theoretical physics has uncovered. The author has done a great job in making accessible 'as if-laws' to a broader audience." --Helmut Pulte, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany"This book has a general audience: every practicing physicist -- and a specific audience: every physics textbook writer. Envision and teach physics powerfully and directly with energy, action, and the Principle of Least Action." -- Edwin F. Taylor, Senior Research Scientist Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "Inspired by the monumental work of Lanczos, Jennifer Coopersmith has constructed a beautiful exposition of the philosophical basis underlying classical mechanics. It has enough technical meat to be interesting to an expert, while remaining accessible to a novice." -- Gerald Jay Sussman, Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "This is a well written and comprehensible presentation of some of the most fascinating and fundamental principles which theoretical physics has uncovered. The author has done a great job in making accessible 'as if-laws' to a broader audience." --Helmut Pulte, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany "This book has a general audience: every practicing physicist -- and a specific audience: every physics textbook writer. Envision and teach physics powerfully and directly with energy, action, and the Principle of Least Action." -- Edwin F. Taylor, Senior Research Scientist Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "The first part is excellent reading for anybody with an interest in the history and philosophy of science. I also recommend the book to students in physics and mathematics who are willing to dig deeper into this subject after taking classes in analytical mechanics, and I believe that it is accessible to any student in STEM disciplines. Practitioners in physics from any sub-discipline will enjoy a refresh and a different point of view that puts their tools of the trade in a broader context." -- Andrea Giammanco, CERN Courier, "The numerous appendices are usually at a more advanced level and condensed in style, but the reader may be entirely bypass them without loss of continuity in the main text. Aside from the invaluable advantage of seeing how a problem is solved, the reason for so many appendices is twofold: to provide a compact resource for the physicist and for the lay reader to know what subject headings to follow up at a later stage, if so desired." -- Community Alliance, "Any careful reader of this book will seek out the monograph without fail and benefit from its perusal... I have no hesitations in recommending this book to any physical scientist or engineer who wants to understand variational principles better." -- Contemporary Physics "Recommended." -- CHOICE "[C]ontagious enthusiasm and a sense of humour unusual in this kind of literature ... The first part is excellent reading for anybody with an interest in the history and philosophy of science. I also recommend the book to students in physics and mathematics who are willing to dig deeper into this subject after taking classes in analytical mechanics, and I believe that it is accessible to any student in STEM disciplines. Practitioners in physics from any sub-discipline will enjoy a refresh and a different point of view that puts their tools of the trade in a broader context." -- CERN Courier "Inspired by the monumental work of Lanczos, Jennifer Coopersmith has constructed a beautiful exposition of the philosophical basis underlying classical mechanics. It has enough technical meat to be interesting to an expert, while remaining accessible to a novice." -- Gerald Jay Sussman, Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "This is a well written and comprehensible presentation of some of the most fascinating and fundamental principles which theoretical physics has uncovered. The author has done a great job in making accessible 'as if-laws' to a broader audience." --Helmut Pulte, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany "This book has a general audience: every practicing physicist -- and a specific audience: every physics textbook writer. Envision and teach physics powerfully and directly with energy, action, and the Principle of Least Action." -- Edwin F. Taylor, Senior Research Scientist Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "The numerous appendices are usually at a more advanced level and condensed in style, but the reader may be entirely bypass them without loss of continuity in the main text. Aside from the invaluable advantage of seeing how a problem is solved, the reason for so many appendices is twofold: to provide a compact resource for the physicist and for the lay reader to know what subject headings to follow up at a later stage, if so desired." -- Community Alliance "Inspired by the monumental work of Lanczos, Jennifer Coopersmith has constructed a beautiful exposition of the philosophical basis underlying classical mechanics. It has enough technical meat to be interesting to an expert, while remaining accessible to a novice." -- Gerald Jay Sussman, Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "This is a well written and comprehensible presentation of some of the most fascinating and fundamental principles which theoretical physics has uncovered. The author has done a great job in making accessible 'as if-laws' to a broader audience." --Helmut Pulte, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany "This book has a general audience: every practicing physicist -- and a specific audience: every physics textbook writer. Envision and teach physics powerfully and directly with energy, action, and the Principle of Least Action." -- Edwin F. Taylor, Senior Research Scientist Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "Jennifer Coopersmith has written a most welcome book, the first historically and philosophically motivated full study since two classics written nearly a half-century ago... [She] has attempted and succeeded admirably I believe in her aim to write a modern book on the history and philosophy of the action principles, as well as to give the technical details." -- American Journal of Physics "Any careful reader of this book will seek out the monograph without fail and benefit from its perusal... I have no hesitations in recommending this book to any physical scientist or engineer who wants to understand variational principles better." -- Contemporary Physics "Recommended." -- CHOICE "[C]ontagious enthusiasm and a sense of humour unusual in this kind of literature ... The first part is excellent reading for anybody with an interest in the history and philosophy of science. I also recommend the book to students in physics and mathematics who are willing to dig deeper into this subject after taking classes in analytical mechanics, and I believe that it is accessible to any student in STEM disciplines. Practitioners in physics from any sub-discipline will enjoy a refresh and a different point of view that puts their tools of the trade in a broader context." -- CERN Courier "Inspired by the monumental work of Lanczos, Jennifer Coopersmith has constructed a beautiful exposition of the philosophical basis underlying classical mechanics. It has enough technical meat to be interesting to an expert, while remaining accessible to a novice." -- Gerald Jay Sussman, Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "This is a well written and comprehensible presentation of some of the most fascinating and fundamental principles which theoretical physics has uncovered. The author has done a great job in making accessible 'as if-laws' to a broader audience." --Helmut Pulte, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany "This book has a general audience: every practicing physicist -- and a specific audience: every physics textbook writer. Envision and teach physics powerfully and directly with energy, action, and the Principle of Least Action." -- Edwin F. Taylor, Senior Research Scientist Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dewey Edition23

Dewey Decimal531/.11

Table Of Content1. Introduction2. Antecedents3. Mathematics and physics preliminaries4. The Principle of Virtual Work5. D'Alembert's Principle6. Lagrangian Mechanics7. Hamiltonian Mechanics8. The whole of physics9. Final wordsAppendicesA1.1 Newton's Laws of MotionA3.1 Reversible DisplacementsA2.1 Protraits of the physicistsA6.1 Worked examples in Langrangian MechanicsA6.2 Proof that T is a function of v2A6.3 Energy coservation and the homogeneity of timeA6.4 The method of Lagrange MultiplesA6.5 Generalized ForcesA7.1 Hamilton's Transformation, ExamplesA7.2 Demonstration tha the pis are independent coordinatesA7.3 Worked examples in Hamiltonian MechanicsA7.4 Incompressibility of the phase fluidA7.5 Energy conservation in extended phase spaceA7.6 Link between the action, S, and the 'circulation'A7.7 Transformation equations linking p and q via SA7.8 Infinitesimal canonical transformationsA7.9 PerpendicularityA7.10 Problems solved using the Hamilton-Jacobi EquationA7.11 Quasi refractive index in mechanicsA7.12 Einstein's link between Action and the de Broglie waves

SynopsisThis is a rare book on a rare topic: it is about 'action' and the Principle of Least Action. A surprisingly well-kept secret, these ideas are at the heart of physical science and engineering. Physics is well known as being concerned with grand conservatory principles (e.g. the conservation of energy) but equally important is the optimization principle (such as getting somewhere in the shortest time or with the least resistance). The book explains: why an optimization principle underlies physics, what action is, what 'the Hamiltonian' is, and how new insights into energy, space, and time arise. It assumes some background in the physical sciences, at the level of undergraduate science, but it is not a textbook. The requisite derivations and worked examples are given but may be skim-read if desired. The author draws from Cornelius Lanczos's book "The Variational Principles of Mechanics" (1949 and 1970). Lanczos was a brilliant mathematician and educator, but his book was for a postgraduate audience. The present book is no mere copy with the difficult bits left out - it is original, and a popularization. It aims to explain ideas rather than achieve technical competence, and to show how Least Action leads into the whole of physics., The Principle of Least Action underlies all physics and leads into quantum mechanics and Einstein's Relativity. There are some textbooks that do the calculations, and one book with nice pictures, but no book (before this one) that explains what 'action' is, and why nature follows this principle., This is a rare book on a rare topic: it is about "action" and the Principle of Least Action. A surprisingly well-kept secret, these ideas are at the heart of physical science and engineering. Physics is well known as being concerned with grand conservatory principles (e.g. the conservation of energy) but equally important is the optimization principle (such as getting somewhere in the shortest time or with the least resistance). The book explains: why an optimization principle underlies physics, what action is, what 'the Hamiltonian' is, and how new insights into energy, space, and time arise. It assumes some background in the physical sciences, at the level of undergraduate science, but it is not a textbook. The requisite derivations and worked examples are given but may be skim-read if desired. The author draws from Cornelius Lanczos's book The Variational Principles of Mechanics (1949 and 1970). Lanczos was a brilliant mathematician and educator, but his book was for a postgraduate audience. The present book is no mere copy with the difficult bits left out - it is original, and a popularization. It aims to explain ideas rather than achieve technical competence, and to show how Least Action leads into the whole of physics., This is a rare book on a rare topic: it is about 'action' and the Principle of Least Action. A surprisingly well-kept secret, these ideas are at the heart of physical science and engineering. Physics is well known as being concerned with grand conservatory principles (e.g. the conservation of energy) but equally important is the optimization principle (such as getting somewhere in the shortest time or with the least resistance). The book explains: why an optimization principle underlies physics, what action is, what the Hamiltonian' is, and how new insights into energy, space, and time arise. It assumes some background in the physical sciences, at the level of undergraduate science, but it is not a textbook. The requisite derivations and worked examples are given but may be skim-read if desired. The author draws from Cornelius Lanczos's book "The Variational Principles of Mechanics" (1949 and 1970). Lanczos was a brilliant mathematician and educator, but his book was for a postgraduate audience. The present book is no mere copy with the difficult bits left out - it is original, and a popularization. It aims to explain ideas rather than achieve technical competence, and to show how Least Action leads into the whole of physics.

LC Classification NumberQA871