Tag: Relativity

Galilean transformations are not compatible with Hamiltonian mechanics

Galilean transformations are not compatible with Hamiltonian mechanics

TL;DR Galilean boosts do not leave Hamilton’s equations and phase space volumes unchanged. They give good approximations only for small changes in velocity. When studying physics, you learn that relativistic mechanics is more “correct” and non-relativistic mechanics is just an approximation. But you may also get a sense that non-relativistic mechanics is self-consistent: it just …

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