MAS412   Analytical Dynamics and Classical Field Theory   (20 credits)

Description

Newton formulated his famous laws of mechanics in the late 17th century. Only later it became obvious through the work of mathematicians like Lagrange, Hamilton and Jacobi that underlying Newton's work are wonderful mathematical structures. In this module the work of Lagrange, Hamilton and Jacobi will be discussed and how it has later affected the formulation of field theory. The module ends with a discussion of Noether's theorem, which relates symmetries of a system to the conservation law of certain quantities (such as energy and momentum).

Reading List