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Just curious: Sussman and Wisdom have written a book called "Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics" following the classic SICP Scheme book. Has an
by sn41 2y ago
Just curious: Sussman and Wisdom have written a book called "Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics" following the classic SICP Scheme book. Has anyone attempted a similar approach for electromagnetics?
- almostgotcaught 2y agoMaxwell's equations are a classical field theory (no quantization). That means Maxwell's equations are one of the theories of the body called classical mechanics. So if you wanted to, you could write down the Lagrangian (density) or Hamiltonian for various experimental configurations (eg charged particle in a field) and derive Maxwell's equations (there are a couple of papers like this). Nothing stopping you from using SICM's formalism either. Would it be a useful exercise? No clue.
- omnicognate 2y agoSussman and Wisdom do it themselves (briefly) in chapter 10 of Functional Differential Geometry.
- nathan_compton 2y agoThey also have a book on field theory, which is just about E&M basically.
- omnicognate 2y agoAre you sure? I don't see such a book at https://mitpress.mit.edu/author/gerald-jay-sussman-2078/ https://mitpress.mit.edu/author/gerald-jay-sussman-2078/. I'd be very interested to read it if there is one. Functional Differential Geometry is about the maths required for field theories but focuses on relativity as the main example.
- nathan_compton 2y agoYou're right: I'm thinking of the theoretical minimum books by Leonard Susskind and Art Friedman.
- gtsnexp 2y agohttps://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/862.22/index.html https://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/862.22/index.html Ch. 6?