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V fiziki se da vse zakone in izreke, povezane s fizikalnimi količinami, ki so odvisne od kraja in časa, zapisati z diferencialnimi enačbami. Le-te so lahko navadne ali parcialne, skalarne ali vektorske, velikokrat pa gre celo za sistem več ali mnogo sklopljenih diferencialnih enačb, odvisno od dimenzije in kompleksnosti fizikalnega problema. Medtem ko so diferencialne enačbe lokalna oblika zapisa fizikalnih zakonov, zajemajo integralske enačbe cel prostor ali čas ali pa določeno prostorsko in časovno območje. Značilen zgled zapisa enačb v obeh oblikah so Maxwellove enačbe v elektromagnetizmu ali pa variacijski račun, povezan z minimizacijo proste energije. S postavitvijo in reševanjem (analitičnim ali numeričnim) teh enačb lahko zajamemo vsa področja fizike, od mehanike in gibanja točkastih teles, kjer posebna fizikalna veja analitična mehanika vpelje koncepte posplošenih koordinat in impulzov, Lagrangiana in Hamiltoniana, do obravnave skalarnih in vektorskih polj v elektromagnetizmu in valovni optiki, kvantni fiziki, termodinamiki, fiziki tekočin, teoriji verjetnosti itd. In physics all the laws and theorems connected with the physical quantities which vary in space and time, can be written with differential equations. These can be ordinary or partial, scalar or vector, but in several cases there is a system of a few or many coupled differential equations, depending on the dimension and complexity of the physical problem. While the differential equations are the local form of writing physical laws, the integral equations contain the whole space or time, or a definite space and time area. A typical example of writing equations in both forms is a set of Maxwell equations in electromagnetism or variational calculus connected with the minimization of the free energy. By setting and solving (analytically or numerically) these equation we can capture all the areas of physics, from mechanics and movement of point-like bodies, where the special physical branch called analytical mechanics introduces the concepts of generalized coordinates and impulses, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian, up to treatment of scalar and vector fields in electromagnetism and wave optics, quantum physics, thermodynamics, physics of fluids, probability theory etc.