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Abstract
The French physicist and mathematician Pierre Louis de Maupertuis enunciated, in 1744 at the Paris Academy of Sciences and two years later at the Prussian Academy of Sciences, a scientific dictum that was destined to gain the greatest prominence in natural sciences: the famous principle of least action. In this essay, we present a historical review of this principle from its beginning at the Milesian School until its most recent applications in Chemistry and Quantum Mechanics.
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