Tag: Time transformations

How Hamiltonians vary under coordinate changes

How Hamiltonians vary under coordinate changes

TL;DR – Hamiltonians are not invariant: they change as the time component of a covector (i.e. covariant component) in phase space. In the previous post we saw how momentum varies as covariant components and that keeps the Hamiltonian equations unchanged under coordinate transformations. We have also seen, though, that under coordinate transformations that mix time …

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Can Hamiltonian mechanics describe dissipative systems?

Can Hamiltonian mechanics describe dissipative systems?

TL;DR – Time dependent Hamiltonian mechanics is for conservative forces in non inertial frames, not for non-conservative forces. In a previous post we saw how Hamiltonian and Newtonian mechanics are different as the first cannot describe dissipative systems. Yet, if we allow the Hamiltonian to be time dependent, the system would appear to change its …

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