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Chapter 5
CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM
PATENT MECHANICS
5.1 CLASSICAL PATENT MECHANICS
e branch of physics referred to as classical mechanics describes and pre-
dicts with great accuracy the motion of macroscopic objects moving much
slower than the speed of light when subject to one or more forces. At the cen-
ter of classical mechanics is Newton’s famous second law of motion: force =
mass × acceleration. Classical mechanics is deterministic in that it exactly
describes (within its limitations) the future motion of an object, provided that
the object’s mass, initial position, and velocity, as well as the forces acting on
the object, are suciently well ...