Question 10/02
LEAST ACTION
In analytical mechanics Newton's laws are reformulated as Hamilton's
Principle of Least Action. The actual derivation of Newton's laws (via the
Euler-Lagrange equations) requires only that the classical path be a
stationary point of the action functional. But the term "Least Action"
seems to imply that the path must be a minimum of the functional.
Can you think of examples where the classical path is a local maximum of
the action? If not, how about a saddle point?
This question has been suggested by B. Svetitsky.
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