[lbo-talk] Lagrangian point

[Les Schaffer]

Chuck Grimes wrote:
>
> I think I understand. I linked to the illustration because it  showed 
> field lines, the sort of picture I have of switching to an  `energy' 
> view of a system.

in that sense you are correct: the energy view rules over details of the 
precise orbit in space and time. which some authors have seen as a 
forerunner of the quantum mechanics.

Poincare was already onto this when he kicked off the exploration of a 
dynamical system's phase space geometry, for which the Hamiltonian 
methods are particularly suited. i think you would find this 
interesting: there is a lot of interplay between the mathematics of 
surfaces, and physics/dynamics.

Les