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A conserved quantity is a property or value that remains constant over time in a system even when changes occur in the system. In mathematics , a conserved quantity of a dynamical system is formally defined as a function of the dependent variables , the value of which remains constant along each trajectory of the system.
In the general case a conservation equation can be also a system of this kind of equations (a vector equation) in the form: [10]: 43 + = where y is called the conserved (vector) quantity, ∇y is its gradient, 0 is the zero vector, and A(y) is called the Jacobian of the current density.
The local conservation of non-gravitational linear momentum and energy in a free-falling reference frame is expressed by the vanishing of the covariant divergence of the stress–energy tensor. Another important conserved quantity, discovered in studies of the celestial mechanics of astronomical bodies, is the Laplace–Runge–Lenz vector.
One reason that conservation equations frequently occur in physics is Noether's theorem. This states that whenever the laws of physics have a continuous symmetry, there is a continuity equation for some conserved physical quantity. The three most famous examples are:
The law can be formulated mathematically in the fields of fluid mechanics and continuum mechanics, where the conservation of mass is usually expressed using the continuity equation, given in differential form as + =, where is the density (mass per unit volume), is the time, is the divergence, and is the flow velocity field.
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 4 December 2024. Law of physics and chemistry This article is about the law of conservation of energy in physics. For sustainable energy resources, see Energy conservation. Part of a series on Continuum mechanics J = − D d φ d x {\displaystyle J=-D{\frac {d\varphi }{dx}}} Fick's laws of diffusion Laws ...
And if we define the quantity in parentheses as , we have: = This is an instance of Noether's theorem. Here, the conserved quantity is the stress–energy tensor, which is only conserved on shell, that is, if the equations of motion are satisfied.
The free Euler equations are conservative, in the sense they are equivalent to a conservation equation: + =, or simply in Einstein notation: + =, where the conservation quantity in this case is a vector, and is a flux matrix. This can be simply proved.