Definition, in Classical Mechanics
In classical mechanics, canonical coordinates are coordinates and in phase space that are used in the Hamiltonian formalism. The canonical coordinates satisfy the fundamental Poisson bracket relations:
Canonical coordinates can be obtained from the generalized coordinates of the Lagrangian formalism by a Legendre transformation, or from another set of canonical coordinates by a canonical transformation.
Read more about this topic: Canonical Coordinates
Famous quotes containing the words classical and/or mechanics:
“Several classical sayings that one likes to repeat had quite a different meaning from the ones later times attributed to them.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (17491832)
“the moderate Aristotelian city
Of darning and the Eight-Fifteen, where Euclids geometry
And Newtons mechanics would account for our experience,
And the kitchen table exists because I scrub it.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)