``...I remember thinking how stupid was this notion that `nature took the path of least action'...as physicists and applied mathematicians we had little interest in the quasi-relgious aspects of the theory...'' Les Schaffer
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This was over on pen-l from a thread on the irrelevance of workers in economic theory....
In my fumbling through math hobby stuff, I always thought the prinicple of least action was considered part of the `conservation' laws, so that a point (i.e mass) took it's curve unless influenced by some external force...
Is that a right or wrong way to think about the lagrangian or hamiltonian formulation?
Please elaborate a little on the concept of least action...
CG