[FRIAM] Watch "The Most Important Idea in Physics: The Principle of Least Action - Ask a Spaceman!" on YouTube

[Nicholas Thompson]

Hi Frank and all,

Ok, so the Action of an object is the diffrence between its kinetic and its
potential energy. (Have I got the grammar right?)  Since mass appears in
both terms, the Action is the mass of the object times the difference
between half it's squared velocity and it's height off the surface.  So, a
mass can have two kinds of energy, that imputed to it because of its
motion, and that imputed to it because of its position [with respect to
other objects, specifically the earth, in this case]. And for some reason,
the path taken by the object through space will integrate this difference
accross the distance between any two points.  Ok,  do I have that right?
Or is this just another example of the dangers of  teaching defrocked
english majors a teensy bit of physics?

Now, we are still in the realm of classical physics.  So, there is still a
chance that non-mathematical intuitions might apply, right?  Does anyone on
the list have an intuition for why the difference between the energy of
motion and the energy of position should be what guides all motion in the
universe?

Nick





On Sun, Jul 2, 2023 at 12:27 PM Nicholas Thompson <thompnickson2 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Frank,
>
> Thanks SO  MUCH for forwarding this to me.  To any other defrocked english
> majors on Friam, who have listened to these guys blather on about
> LaGrangians for all these years,  I highly, HIGHLY recommend the video.
> Pretty short, AND, you might possibly, conceivably understand Steve Guerin
> when you  get to the end.   Yeah.  Really.
>
> Nick
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Frank Wimberly <wimberly3 at gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, Jun 29, 2023 at 2:53 PM
> Subject: Fwd: Watch "The Most Important Idea in Physics: The Principle of
> Least Action - Ask a Spaceman!" on YouTube
> To: Nicholas Thompson <thompnickson2 at gmail.com>
>
>
>
>
> ---
> Frank C. Wimberly
> 140 Calle Ojo Feliz,
> Santa Fe, NM 87505
>
> 505 670-9918
> Santa Fe, NM
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Frank Wimberly <wimberly3 at gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, Jun 29, 2023, 12:51 PM
> Subject: Watch "The Most Important Idea in Physics: The Principle of Least
> Action - Ask a Spaceman!" on YouTube
> To: Thompson, Nicholas <nickthompson at earthlink.net>, Barry MacKichan <
> barry.mackichan at mackichan.com>
>
>
> https://youtu.be/UuqpCBZoX3M
>
> ---
> Frank C. Wimberly
> 140 Calle Ojo Feliz,
> Santa Fe, NM 87505
>
> 505 670-9918
> Santa Fe, NM
>
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