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:
“Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)
“The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“Properly speaking, history is nothing but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race.”
—Pierre Bayle (1647–1706)