As far as variational principles go, one difference is that a physical system displays no preference among the different local extrema. (IIRC you can even come up with models where the same system will minimize (an) action for some initial conditions and maximize it for others.) This makes a Lagrangian-style physical system a pretty poor CSA even if you go out of your way to model it as one.
As far as variational principles go, one difference is that a physical system displays no preference among the different local extrema. (IIRC you can even come up with models where the same system will minimize (an) action for some initial conditions and maximize it for others.) This makes a Lagrangian-style physical system a pretty poor CSA even if you go out of your way to model it as one.