Past exam of the physics 1 paper of the University of Oxford / 2018 / 1

For ordinary conservative classical mechanics, the Lagrangian is $L(q,\dot{q},t)=T-V$, where $T$ is the kinetic energy and $V$ the potential energy. More generally it is the function whose action $\int Ldt$ satisfies the principle of stationary action. The canonical momenta and Hamiltonian areFor a regular Lagrangian, the first equations can be inverted to express the generalized velocities in terms of $q,p,t$; this defines the Legendre transform on phase space.

Along a solution of the Euler-Lagrange equations, ${\dot{p}}_i=\partial L/\partial q_i$. Taking a total time derivative givesThus an autonomous Lagrangian hasFor the usual time-independent mechanical coordinates and a velocity-independent potential energy, the kinetic energy is quadratic in the generalized velocities, so ${\sum }_i{p}_i{\dot{q}}_i=2T$ and $H=T+V$. The conservation proof itself uses the Euler-Lagrange equations, rather than assuming this special expression for energy.