What is the comparison among Newtonian, Lagrangian, Hamiltonian, and quantum mechanics?

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Lagrangian Mechanics Classical Mechanics Quantum Mechanics Physics

What is the comparison among Newtonian,

Lagrangian, Hamiltonian, and quantum
mechanics?

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3 Answers

Daniel Merthe, Physics Ph.D. Candidate, University of Southern California

Written Mar 29 Upvoted by Frederic Rachford, Ph.D. physics - Condensed Matter /
Electrodynamics

Newtonian mechanics was the original mechanics. Way back in 1686, Newton wrote down
three laws of motion:

1) Objects in motion tend to stay in the same motion, unless acted on by a force.

2) The acceleration of an object, which is the rate of change of its velocity, is usually
(miraculously) proportional to a function of just its position. This function is called the
force and the proportionality constant is called the mass.

3) If any object A causes a force on any other object B, then object B causes the same force
on object A, but in the opposite direction.

The most important of these laws, in terms of building mathematical models, is the second
law, based on which we can write down the second order dierential equation,

ma = mx = F(x)

where dots indicate time derivatives, m is the mass, a is the acceleration vector and F is the
force vector. (They are vectors because every force has a direction and a magnitude. For
example, the gravitational force on the Earth due the Sun is very big, and it points from the
Earth towards the Sun, i.e. it is being pulled towards the sun.) By solving this equation for
x(t) , you can know the position of the object and its motion for all time.

This little equation was revolutionary because it described such a wide range of seemingly
disparate phenomena, from the orbits of the planets to the swing of a clock pendulum to the
fall of an apple. But as amazing as that was, this equation was often hard to solve, especially
in more complicated systems or systems with a large number of interacting objects.

In order to get around this problem, physicists developed Lagrangian mechanics. Whereas
Newtonian mechanics is based on Cartesian coordinates, Lagrangian mechanics is
independent of any particular coordinate system (although, the two formulations are
mathematically identical). This allows for much greater flexibility in doing calculations.
i ; t) and the action,
The starting point is the definition of the Lagrangian function L(q i , q
t
S[{qi (t)}] = t1 2 dt L(qi , q i ; t)

where the q i (i = 1, 2, 3, , # of degrees of freedom) are the generalized coordinates of the

system and q i are the corresponding generalized velocities. The generalized coordinates
can be any set of coordinates that you like, as long as they completely specify the state of
the system. They can be distances, angles or whatever else quantifies the state. But the
reason theoretical physicists went bonkers with the Lagrangian formulation is the elegant
physical principle on which the dynamics is based (Hamiltons principle):

The physical path that a system takes from time t1 to time t2 is the one for which the action (S )
is stationary.

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That is, nature seems to choose the path that is either a minimum, maximum or saddle
point of the action (it is usually the minimum). It turns out that extremizing the action in
this way results in the Euler-Lagrange equations of motion,
d L L
dt q i
= qi

which is really just a generalized form of Newtons second law (the left side is mass times
acceleration and right side is the generalized force). But, again, the strength here is that you
can choose the coordinates q i that make this equation easiest to solve. For example, in
systems with central forces (like gravity), it is advantageous to use spherical coordinates,
such that you separate the dynamics into its angular and radial parts. You can then describe
separately the radial and angular motion of the object, by solving the corresponding Euler-
Lagrange equations.

With this powerful formulation of mechanics, physicists were able to solve wider classes of
problems more easily. Moreover, it facilitated the identification of conserved quantities in
dynamical systems. If a quantity is conserved, its value does not change over time, and you
do not need to keep track of it. Thus, finding the conserved quantities of a system simplifies
the analysis.

Recognizing the importance of conserved quantities, Hamiltonian mechanics was derived

from the Lagrangian formulation. In Hamiltonian mechanics, the conserved quantities
become more apparent. The Hamiltonian function H is calculated from the Lagrangian via
a change of variables called the Legendre transform,

H(qi , pi ; t) = i q i pi L(qi , q i ; t)

where the momentum corresponding to the coordinate q i is defined as

L
pi q i

Essentially, we replace the velocity coordinates with momentum coordinates, such that the
physical state of the system at any time is described by the set of coordinates {q i , p i } .
Putting these two equations together with the Euler-Lagrange equation above, we get
Hamiltons equations of motion,

H
q i = pi
i
and p = H
q i

Lo and behold, the Hamitonian is a conserved quantity,

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dH H qi
dt
= i qi t
+ H
pi t

H H H H
= i qi pi
pi qi
=0 Related Questions

Moreover, if the Hamiltonian does not depend explicitly on the coordinate q i , then What are the paradoxes in quantum mechanics?
dpi H
dt
= qi
=0 Why do we need quantum mechanics?

What are the flaws of quantum mechanics?

which means that the corresponding momentum is also a conserved quantity! We get that
right out of the box, with little knowledge about the particular system. In fact, the time How do I study quantum mechanics well?
dependence of any dynamical variable A = A(q i , p i ) is given by
What are the dierences and similarities between
dA A qi A pi
dt
= i qi t
+ pi t
Newtonian, Lagrangian, Hamiltonian, and quantum
mechanics?
A H A H
= i qi pi
pi qi What is the best book for newtonian mechanics?

or more compactly, Why does Newtonian mechanics not apply in the

dA quantum realm?
dt
= {A, H}
With a year or so of college maths and physics, how
where the thing on the right is called the Poisson bracket. If the Poisson bracket of a far am I from being able to understand, at a
quantity with the Hamiltonian is zero, then it is invariant over time. rudimentary level, Lagrangian/Hamiltonian mec...

The Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations describe the same physical processes. They Are there any math. tools/methods economists
are both equivalent to Newtonian mechanics, but have dierent advantages depending on borrowed from quantum mechanics like they did from
classical mechanics (e.g. Lagrangian or Hamilt...
what you want to calculate. If you want a conceptually simple and intuitive description of
things, use Newtonian mechanics. If you have a potentially complicated system and you Why do Newtonian mechanics break down at
want to simplify and standardize the calculation as much as possible, start with Lagrangian relativistic and quantum scales?
mechanics. If you want to see symmetries and conserved quantities, go with Hamiltonian
mechanics. But if you take any of these three approaches, you are doing classical
mechanics.

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What is the comparison among Newtonian, Lagrangian, Hamiltonian, and quantum mechanics? - Quora 04/04/2017, 12)00 AM

Quantum mechanics is a completely dierent theory of mechanics. It was first formulated

as an extension of Hamiltonian mechanics (when the latter failed on small scales), and then
later Feynman provided an alternative interpretation in terms of Lagrangian mechanics.

The Hamiltonian version of quantum mechanics starts with the assertion that dynamical
variables, such as position and momentum, are not numbers, but are instead operators. An
operator is simply an object that acts on another object. When we make a measurement of
some observable variable, we actually obtain certain values, called eigenvalues, associated
with the corresponding operator. In many cases, these eigenvalues are discrete, or
quantized (hence the name quantum). Moreover, the (eigen)values that we get from
measurements are random. There is simply no way to know what the result of a future
measurement will be. We can only calculate probabilities. So, instead of identifying the
state of a system with the randomized observables (position, momentum, etc.), we identify
it with the probability distribution of observed (eigen)values, or rather its proxy - the
probability amplitude or wave function . The probability density is the magnitude square
of the wave function. For example, if the wave function is defined in position space
2
= (x), then the probability density is |(x)| (the probability of measuring a position in
2
a small neighborhood dx about point x is |(x)| dx ).

In a way analogous to the definition of the Poisson bracket above, the time dependence of
the wave function is given by the Schrdinger equation,

1
t
= i
H

where is the Planck constant and here the Hamiltonian is now the operator H , which acts
on the wave function. To get this operator, you just write down the classical Hamiltonian
function and replace the coordinates and momenta with the corresponding operators,
which must obey the constraint,

qi pi pi qi = i

known as the canonical commutation relation. Generally, any two operators do not
commute (meaning that the order in which you apply them matters. Think of rotations, for
example. A rotation about the z-axis followed by a rotation about the y-axis is dierent from
the reverse operation). This relation tells us that the position and momentum operators fail
to commute by a very tiny amount - the Planck constant ( 6.626 1034 m2 kg / s). A
consequence of this is that you cannot obtain arbitrarily precise measurements of both
position and momentum simultaneously. This statement is often summarized as the
famous Heisenberg uncertainty principle,

qp 2

where q is the uncertainty in some coordinate q and p is the uncertainty in the

corresponding momentum.

Whereas, in Newtonian, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics you solve for the
coordinates as functions of time for the objects under study, here you solve for the wave
function, which is a function of all these coordinates and a function of time. This adds an
additional layer of complexity, which makes quantum mechanics problems generally more
dicult to solve than their classical analogues.

Feymans path integral formulation of quantum mechanics is mathematically equivalent to

this version of quantum mechanics, but instead of writing down the Schrdinger equation
and trying to solve it, you just write down the solution in the form,

= {qi (t)} exp[ i S[qi (t)]]

where the sum is taken over all possible paths {q i (t)} , and S[{q i (t)}] is the classical action
from Lagrangian mechanics above, which is a function of the path {q i (t)} that the system
takes. What this says is that the wave function is really just the sum over all possible paths
{qi (t)} of this exponential function of the action. This is a conceptually beautiful idea: a
particle or system can take any possible path through space and you just sum up the
probability amplitudes for each path to get the total wave function. But when you try to
actually do this calculation, you run into a big problem: how do you define a sum over
paths? how do you even count all the paths? This issue quickly complicates things, and even
for simple systems the sum becomes quite messy. For this reason, the above formulation
based on extending Hamiltonian mechanics is usually more straightforward.
2.2k Views View Upvotes Answer requested by Muhammad Suleman Mehervi

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Related Questions More Answers Below

What are the paradoxes in quantum mechanics?

Why do we need quantum mechanics?

What are the flaws of quantum mechanics?

How do I study quantum mechanics well?

What are the dierences and similarities between Newtonian, Lagrangian, Hamiltonian,
and quantum mechanics?

Nikhil Tilak, majored in Physics

Written May 15, 2015

Newtonian mechanics deals with objects that are macroscopic and moving at speeds
much smaller that the speed of light in vacuum. In Newtonian mechanics the main
principle that is used to predict the motion of an object is : Every object wants to stay in its
present state of motion (or rest) and a Force is required to change the momentum (mass
dp
times velocity) of such an object. This principle is called Newton's law of motion(F = )
dt
Where F is the Force and p is the momentum of the object. Newtonian mechanics does a
good job of describing the motions of most normal sized objects (bricks, cars, buildings
etc.).

The Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations are not new types of mechanics, they are
a new type of math for looking at Newtonian/Classical mechanics. They are collectively
called Least action Principles. The Lagrangian is defined as L = K U and the
Hamiltonian is defined as H = K + U where K and U are the Kinetic and Potential
energies of a particular particle. Suppose a Particle wants to go from Point A to Point B.
There are infinitely many Paths which start at A and end at B. The "Action" is defined as the
integral of the Lagrangian or the Hamiltonian over any Path joining A and B. The Least
action Principle says that this Action will be smallest for the a particular Path and that's the
Path which the particle will actually take to go from A to B. I call it the Lazy-Particle
approach to Mechanics. Its as if the Particle tried out all the possible ways of going from A to
B and finally chose a Path which takes the least amount of eort.

Relativistic Mechanics is used to describe the motion of objects which are moving at
speeds close to the speed of light.(There are actually two dierent theories of relativity :
Special and General. The General theory talks about Gravity.) The central postulate of
Special Relativity is that the speed of light is the same for all Inertial frames. In Newtonian
mechanics we make a clear distinction between spatial co-ordinates and time but in
relativistic mechanics time is not considered to be independent of the frame of reference.
(Space and time are collectively called, spacetime :P) This means if two Observers try to
describe the same set of events then they might record dierent times at which the events
took place and still be correct in their own frames of reference. All quantities in Newtonian
Mechanics get modified accordingly.

Quantum mechanics deals with objects that are very small in size (think electrons,
atoms,molecules etc.). It is fundamentally dierent from Newtonian mechanics because of
the Uncertainty principle. According to Quantum mechanics all "objects"(which are
localized) are described as "Waves" (Which are non localized ). We can talk about where an
object is placed and what is its momentum, but we cannot say the same about a wave which
is spread out in space. According to the Born interpretation, this wave tells us about the
chances of finding an object at a particular place in space. The Schrodinger Equation which
is the quantum analog of Newton's law describes how these Probability waves evolve with
time. There's no concept of Forces in Quantum mechanics and all the Observables (things
which can be measured about the motion of an object like Energy, Momentum, Angular
Momentum etc.) depend on the Probability Wave through Operators (These are basically
functions, which take the Probability Wave as the input and spit out the value of the
Observable as the output.).
3.4k Views View Upvotes

Max Throm
Written Mar 23

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What is the comparison among Newtonian, Lagrangian, Hamiltonian, and quantum mechanics? - Quora 04/04/2017, 12)00 AM

This answer will use some math but since you're asking about the Lagrangian and
Hamiltonian formulations of mechanics I'll assume it's okay.

First things first, classical mechanics is the average of quantum mechanics. Things like
position, energy, and momentum are represented by matrices called operators in
quantum mechanics.

When you average over these operators you get the classical equations of motion:

dx
m = p
dt
V dp

x
=
dt
where the brackets mean average, V is the potential energy, and p is the momentum. These
are the same as the classical equations p = mv and F = ma .

Now let's compare Newtonian Mechanics to Lagrangian Mechanics to Hamiltonian

Mechanics.

Let's take a simple Lagrangian,

m 2
L= x V ,
2
and plug it into the Euler-Lagrange Equation :

d L L
= .
dt x x
L
= mx
x
d L d
= mx = mx
dt x dt
L V
=
x x
V
We're left with mx = or more famously known as F = ma ! Weve shown that the
x
Lagrangian formulation of mechanics is the same as the Newtonian. How about Hamilton?

The Hamiltonian is defined as H = x p L.

Hamiltons equations are

H
x = and
p
H
p = .
x
First lets look a little more closely at the Hamiltonian.

m 2 m p2 p2 p2
H = x p L = x p ( x V) = x p x 2 + V = +V = +V
2 2 m 2m 2m
The Hamiltonian is a systems energy!

Let's plug this into Hamiltons equations.

H p
x = =
p m
H V
p = =
x x
dp
We have again p = mv and F = !
dt

I hope this helped :-)

(Let me know if you catch any typos or have any questions!)

160 Views View Upvotes Answer requested by Muhammad Suleman Mehervi

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What is the comparison among Newtonian, Lagrangian, Hamiltonian, and quantum mechanics? - Quora 04/04/2017, 12)00 AM

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