Definition:Generalized Coordinates

Definition

A set of coordinates:

$\set {q_1, q_2, \ldots, q_n}$

sufficient to specify the configuration of a mechanical system can be referred to as generalized coordinates.

Also see

• Results about generalized coordinates can be found here.

Sources

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): generalized coordinates
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): generalized coordinates