Originally it was likely created to study constrained mechanical systems where you want to use some "custom convenient" variables to parametrize things instead of global x, y, z. Classical examples that you must have in mind include:lagrangian mechanics lectures by Michel van Biezen (2017) is a good starting point.

When doing lagrangian mechanics, we just lump together all generalized coordinates into a single vector $\overrightarrow{q}(t):\mathbb{R}\to {\mathbb{R}}^n$ that maps time to the full state:where each component can be anything, either the x/y/z coordinates relative to the ground of different particles, or angles, or nay other crazy thing we want.

The Lagrangian is a function ${\mathbb{R}}^n\times {\mathbb{R}}^n\times \mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}$ that maps:to a real number.

Then, the stationary action principle says that the actual path taken obeys the Euler-Lagrange equation:This produces a system of partial differential equations with:

The mixture of so many derivatives is a bit mind mending, so we can clarify them a bit further. At:the $q_i$ is just identifying which argument of the Lagrangian we are differentiating by: the i-th according to the order of our definition of the Lagrangian. It is not the actual function, just a mnemonic.

Then at:

However, people later noticed that the Lagrangian had some nice properties related to Lie group continuous symmetries.

Basically it seems that the easiest way to come up with new quantum field theory models is to first find the Lagrangian, and then derive the equations of motion from them.

For every continuous symmetry in the system (modelled by a Lie group), there is a corresponding conservation law: local symmetries of the Lagrangian imply conserved currents.
Genius: Richard Feynman and Modern Physics by James Gleick (1994) chapter "The Best Path" mentions that Richard Feynman didn't like the Lagrangian mechanics approach when he started university at MIT, because he felt it was too magical. The reason is that the Lagrangian approach basically starts from the principle that "nature minimizes the action across time globally". This implies that things that will happen in the future are also taken into consideration when deciding what has to happen before them! Much like the lifeguard in the lifegard problem making global decisions about the future. However, chapter "Least Action in Quantum Mechanics" comments that Feynman later notice that this was indeed necessary while developping Wheeler-Feynman absorber theory into quantum electrodynamics, because they felt that it would make more sense to consider things that way while playing with ideas such as positrons are electrons travelling back in time. This is in contrast with Hamiltonian mechanics, where the idea of time moving foward is more directly present, e.g. as in the Schrödinger equation.

Furthermore, given the symmetry, we can calculate the derived conservation law, and vice versa.

And partly due to the above observations, it was noticed that the easiest way to describe the fundamental laws of particle physics and make calculations with them is to first formulate their Lagrangian somehow: S.

TODO advantages:

Bibliography:

It is so mind blowing that people believed in this theory. How can you think that, when you turn on a lamp and then you see? Obviously, the lamp must be emitting something!!!

Then comes along this epic 2002 paper: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12094435/ "Fundamentally misunderstanding visual perception. Adults' belief in visual emissions". TODO review methods...

In special relativity, it is impossible to travel faster than light.

One argument of why, is that if you could travel faster than light, then you could send a message to a point in Spacetime that is spacelike-separated from the present. But then since the target is spacelike separated, there exists a inertial frame of reference in which that event happens before the present, which would be hard to make sense of.

Even worse, it would be possible to travel back in time:

Bibliography:

For every continuous symmetry in the system (Lie group), there is a corresponding conservation law.

Furthermore, given the symmetry, we can calculate the derived conservation law, and vice versa.

As mentioned at buzzard.ups.edu/courses/2017spring/projects/schumann-lie-group-ups-434-2017.pdf, what the symmetry (Lie group) acts on (obviously?!) are the Lagrangian generalized coordinates. And from that, we immediately guess that manifolds are going to be important, because the generalized variables of the Lagrangian can trivially be Non-Euclidean geometry, e.g. the pendulum lives on an infinite cylinder.

Notably used for communication with submarines, so in particular crucial as part of sending an attack signal to that branch of the nuclear triad.

This is likely the easiest one to produce as the frequencies are lower, which is why it was discovered first. TODO original setup.

Also because it is transparent to brick and glass, (though not metal) it becomes good for telecommunication.

Some notable subranges:

Micro means "small wavelength compared to radio waves", not micron-sized.

Microwave production and detection is incredibly important in many modern applications:

Microwave only found applications into the 1940s and 1950s, much later than radio, because good enough sources were harder to develop.

One notable development was the cavity magnetron in 1940, which was the basis for the original radar systems of World War II.

Apparently, DC current comes in, and microwaves come out.

TODO: sample power efficiently of this conversion and output spectrum of this conversion on some cheap device we can buy today.

Finance is a cancer of society. But I have to admit it, it's kind of cool.

arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/private-microwave-networks-financial-hft/ The secret world of microwave networks (2016) Fantastic article.