Edelen D. Lagrangian Mechanics of Nonconservative...Systems 1977 torrent

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Real problems in the real world rarely exhibit themselves in those pleasant and pristine forms wherein one can model them in terms of systems with conservative forces and holonomic con Straints. Indeed, in a deeper sense, that ultimate democratic Principle of natural science, referred to in its phenomenological aspect as the second law of thermodynamics, tells us that such conservative, holonomic representations must ultimately degenerate or excise themselves from the domain of the real into ethereal flights of fancy. It is thus altogether surprising to discover that many, if not almost all recent applications of E. Cartan's exterior calculus to mechanics confine the expositions to problems of the pleasant and pristine variety. As attested by the title, this tract addresses itself to the daily problems of real mechanics. The mode of exposition is through the exterior calculus, for this calculus knows nothing about, nor takes cognizance of the intrinsic limitations imposed by the monads of the conservative or the holonomic. It also adheres to the Lagrangian formulation throughout,
for this is the natural formulation, the Hamiltonian formulation being dependent on Legendre transformations whose very existence can fail to obtain in real problems. My one wish is that the reader derive as much pleasure from the reading as the writer derived from the writing