History of variational principles in physics involves integrals over an interval of time and (for fields) extended region of space. Moreover, in the usual formulation of classical action principles, the initial and final states of the system are fixed, e.g., In particular, the fixing of the "final" state appears to give the action principle a teleological character which has been controversial historically. This apparent teleology is eliminated in the quantum mechanical version of the action principle. History of variational principles in physics A variational principle in physics is an alternative method for determining the state or dynamics of a physical system, by identifying it as an
Time in physics Time in physics Time in physics is defined by its measurement: time is what a clock reads. In classical, non-relativistic physics it is a scalar quantity and, like length, mass, and charge, is usually described as a fundamental quantity. Time can be combined mathematically with other physical quantities to derive other concepts such as motion, kinetic energy and time-dependent fields. "" is a complex of technological and scientific issues, and part of the foundation of "recordkeeping". Before there were clocks, time was measured by those physical processes which were understandable to each epoch of civilization: Eventually, it became possible to