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781 bytes added , 22:19, July 5, 2009

short but lots of value here; could be improved

The '''Principle of Least Action''' is an assumption of efficient motion in physics whereby a particle of fixed overall potential and kinetic energy follows the path that minimizes its action.

Variations on this principle include the insights that:

* a multi-body system will come to rest at a position that minimizes overall potential energy.
* light takes the shortest path to travel between two points

This principle is a physical extension of the Euclidean theorem that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

The doctoral thesis of physicist [[Richard Feynmann]] applied the Principle of Least Action to [[quantum mechanics]], and later built on that work to generate "Feynman diagrams," for which he won a shared [[Nobel Prize]].
[[Category:physics]]

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Revision as of 22:19, July 5, 2009

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