A concise account of the structure of the canonical transformation is given, in the lowest dimensional case. This case is chosen because it offers a special clarity in several respects. In particular, the diversity of possible generating functions is illustrated by m any examples which are not available elsewhere. Many of these are of physical interest, and some of them are multivalued. These examples are used to inform a comparative study of the several different definitions of a canonical transformation to be found in the literature. The paper is pertinent to all those branches of mechanics which can be given a hamiltonian representation. These include not only the classical dynamics of particles and rigid bodies, but also some more recent studies in continuum mechanics, including geophysical fluid dynamics. An area of particular modern interest is that of symplectic integrators. These are numerical integrating algorithms which generate a solution to Hamilton’s equations via a sequence of canonical transformations, which preserve the hamiltonian structure in the numerical solution.
Book Review: A Treatise on the Analytical Dynamics of Particles and Rigid Bodies with an Introduction to the Problem of Three Bodies
