History
The formulation of virtual work implements the view the outcome is selected from a set of "tentative" realities in order to minimize a quantity. This is a version of the "simplicity hypothesis" that can be traced to Aristotle. Another form of this hypothesis is Ockham's "razor" which states that "it is futile to employ many principles when it is possible to employ fewer." These ideas illustrate a view of physics that nature optimizes in some way.
Leibnitz formulated Newton's laws of motion in terms of work and kinetic energy, or vis viva (living force), which are minimized as a system moves. Maupertuis adapted Leibnitz's ideas as the principle of least action that nature minimizes action. But it was Euler and Lagrange who provided the mathematical foundation of the calculus of variations and applied it to the study of the statics and dynamics of mechanical systems.
Hamilton's reformulation of the principle of least action and Lagrange's equations yielded a theory of dynamics that is the foundation for modern physics and quantum mechanics.
Read more about this topic: Virtual Work
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I saw the Arab map.
It resembled a mare shuffling on,
dragging its history like saddlebags,
nearing its tomb and the pitch of hell.”
—Adonis [Ali Ahmed Said] (b. 1930)
“We aspire to be something more than stupid and timid chattels, pretending to read history and our Bibles, but desecrating every house and every day we breathe in.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The history is always the same the product is always different and the history interests more than the product. More, that is, more. Yes. But if the product was not different the history which is the same would not be more interesting.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)