ABSTRACT
The laws of motion of classical mechanics have both general and specific aspects. The general aspects are common to all of classical dynamics, irrespective of the particular type of interaction responsible for the motion of a system. In the mechanics of Sir Isaac Newton it is convenient to express the interaction of bodies by forces. The force acting on a mass point is a vector function of position, velocity, and certain characteristic properties of the mass point which describe completely the influence of all other bodies on that mass point. There are principally three different meanings of causality in classical physics: predictability or Newtonian causality, restriction of signal velocities to those not exceeding the velocity of light, and the absence of "advanced" effects of fields with finite propagation velocity. The Lie groups of special interest in classical mechanics are the four-dimensional translation group and the three-dimensional rotation group, the Galilean group, and the Lorentz group.
