Chapter 23: Conclusion

In the preceding chapters we have treated various aspects of classical dynamics and have endeavoured to show that the structure of the theory is intimately related to an associative algebra with derivations. Transformations of dynamical systems are intimately associated not only with their time development but also with the “apparent” changes due to a change in the frame of reference. In many ways our approach to classical mechanics in this book has been conditioned by knowledge of developments in quantum mechanics. Without trying to explain in detail the quantum mechanical notions involved, we conclude this book by first discussing some of the analogies as well as the differences between classical mechanics and quantum mechanics, and then we mention the ways in which the latter has “opened our eyes” to aspects of the former…