Friday, April 14, 2017

lagrangian formalism - Type of stationary point in Hamilton's principle


In this question it is discussed why by Hamilton's principle the action integral must be stationary. Most examples deal with the case that the action integral is minimal: this makes sense - we all follow the path with the least resistance.


However, a stationary point can be a maximal or minimal extremum or even a point of inflexion (rising or falling). Can anybody give examples from theory or practice where the action integral takes on a maximal extremum or a point of inflexion?




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classical mechanics - Moment of a force about a given axis (Torque) - Scalar or vectorial?

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