Lagrange, Hamilton, Schrödinger, and computers

ABSTRACT The subtitle of this article could be “Modern engineer meets the masters of mathematical physics.” While there is no way to know how the masters would use our modern technology, we can educate ourselves in their way of thinking and adapt their mathematical methods to our computational capabilities. This article attempts to do just that and illustrates the findings with examples from dynamics, electro‐magnetics, and quantum mechanics. It does this from the engineer's viewpoint and in keeping with the mission of the Computer Applications in Engineering Education publication. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 22:238–251, 2014; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.20550