Physics Courseware Support: Mechanics
Hi
The attached worksheet is the final version that appears in Maple 2023 as Courseware support for Mechanics in the context of Physics courses. Everything below also works in Maple 2022.2 with the last Maplesoft Physics Updates for that release..
What follows is presented as "Topic > Problem > Solution", with typical symbolic problems and how you can solve them on a worksheet. As such, this material does not intend to compete with textbooks nor with teacher's notes but to be a helpful complement, as in "what can computer algebra really do to support the learning activity". Mainly, allow for focusing the logic and thinking while the computer takes care of the intricacies of the algebraic manipulations, that when computing with paper and pencil so frequently take mostly all of our focus.
The material, thus, has 70 solved problems covering all the sort-of-syllabus of hyperlinks below. The presentation uses notation as in textbooks and illustrates different techniques, several not present in help pages. It also shows why it is relevant to have a Vectors package that handles abstract vectors as well as projections using unit vectors, not matrix representations for them. Your feedback about everything you see in the worksheet - suggestions for new topics or problems, or anything else - can be useful and is welcome.
Due to the length of this material (~100 pages), out of the 70 problems, below I left open (visible) the Solution sections of only a few of them, illustrating different things, also new functionality e.g. the first and last ones. That is sufficient to have an idea of what this is about. At the end there is a Maple worksheet with the same contents and a PDF file of the same with all the sections open.
With the best wishes for 2023.
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Explore. While learning, having success is a secondary goal: using your curiosity as a compass is what matters. Things can be done in many different ways, take full permission to make mistakes. Computer algebra can transform the algebraic computation part of physics into interesting discoveries and fun.
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The following material assumes knowledge of how to use Maple. If you feel that is not your case, for a compact introduction on reproducing in Maple the computations you do with paper and pencil, see sections 1 to 5 of the Mini-Course: Computer Algebra for Physicists . Also, the presentation assumes an understanding of the subjects and the style is not that of a textbook. Instead, it focuses on conveniently using computer algebra to support the practice and learning process. The selection of topics follows references [1] and [2] at the end. Maple 2023.0 includes Part I. Part II is forthcoming.
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Part I
1. |
Position, velocity and acceleration in Cartesian, cylindrical and spherical coordinates
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a. |
The position as a function of time
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b. |
The velocity
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c. |
The acceleration
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d. |
Deriving these formulas
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e. |
Velocity and acceleration in the case of 2-dimensional motion on the x, y plane
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1. |
The equations of motion
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i. |
The equations of motion - vectorial form
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ii. |
The case of constant acceleration
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iii. |
Motion under gravitational force close to the Earth's surface
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iv. |
Motion under gravitational force not close to the Earth's surface
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i. |
Different acceleration in different regions
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ii. |
The equations of motion using tensor notation
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B. |
Curvilinear coordinates
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ii. |
The equations of motion
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iii. |
Static: reactions of planes and tensions on cables
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b. |
Conservation of the total energy of a closed system or a system in a constant external field
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c. |
Conservation of the total momentum of a closed system
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d. |
Conservation of angular momentum
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1. |
Integration of the equations of motion
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a. |
Motion in one dimension
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a. |
Motion in a central field
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a. |
Free oscillations in one dimension
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c. |
Oscillations of systems with many degrees of freedom
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c. |
Angular momentum of a rigid body
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d. |
The equations of motion of a rigid body
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1. |
Non-inertial coordinate systems
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a. |
Coriolis force and centripetal force
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Part II (forthcoming)
1. |
The Hamiltonian and equations of motion; Poisson brackets
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2. |
Canonical transformations
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3. |
The Hamilton-Jacobi equation
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Position, velocity and acceleration in Cartesian, cylindrical and spherical coordinates
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Load the Physics:-Vectors package
![[`&x`, `+`, `.`, Assume, ChangeBasis, ChangeCoordinates, CompactDisplay, Component, Curl, DirectionalDiff, Divergence, Gradient, Identify, Laplacian, Nabla, Norm, ParametrizeCurve, ParametrizeSurface, ParametrizeVolume, Setup, Simplify, `^`, diff, int]](/view.aspx?sf=219944_post/2bb7da133e2e34cdbb3f644a83379b4d.gif)
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(1) |
Depending on the geometry of a problem, it can be convenient to work with either Cartesian or curvilinear coordinates. In an arbitrary reference system, the position in Cartesian coordinates and the basis of unitary vectors is given by
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(2) |
Problem
Rewrite the position vector in cylindrical and spherical coordinates
Starting from the position in the Cartesian system, now as functions of the time to allow for differentiation, first note that the Cartesian unit vectors do not depend on time, they are constant vectors. So is entered as

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(20) |
Before proceeding further, use a compact display to more clearly visualize the following expressions. When in doubt about the contents behind a given display, input show as shown below.
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(21) |
For the velocity and acceleration, note the dot notation for derivatives with respect to
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(22) |
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(23) |
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(24) |
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The position as a function of time
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Problem
Given the position vector as a function of the time t, rewrite it in cylindrical and spherical coordinates while making the curvilinear unit vectors' time dependency explicit.
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The velocity
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Problem
Rewrite the velocity in cylindrical and spherical coordinates while making the curvilinear unit vectors' time dependency explicit .
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The acceleration
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Problem
Rewrite the acceleration in cylindrical and spherical components while making the curvilinear unit vectors' time dependency explicit.
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Deriving these formulas
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All these results for the position , velocity and acceleration are based on the differentiation rules for cylindrical and spherical unit vectors. It is thus instructive to also be able to derive any of these formulas; for that, we need the differentiation rule for the unit vectors. For example, for the spherical ones

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(38) |
The above result contains, in the last equation, the cylindrical radial unit vector ; rewrite it in the spherical basis
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(39) |
So the differentiation rules for spherical unit vectors, with the result expressed in the spherical system, are
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(40) |
Problem
With this information at hand, derive, in steps, the expressions for the velocity and acceleration in cylindrical and spherical coordinates
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Solution
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We want to compute
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(41) |
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(42) |
Introducing the differentiation rules (40) for the unit vectors
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(43) |
Performing the inert (grayed) derivatives
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(44) |
In the same way, for the acceleration
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(45) |
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(46) |
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(47) |

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(48) |

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(49) |

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(50) |
Collect vector components

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(51) |
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Summary
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You can express and in any of the Cartesian, cylindrical or spherical systems via three different methods: 1) using the ChangeBasis command 2) differentiating 3) deriving the formulas by differentiating in steps, starting from the differentiation rules for the curvilinear unit vectors.
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Velocity and acceleration in the case of 2-dimensional motion on the x, y plane
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Problem
Derive formulas for velocity and acceleration in the case of 2-dimensional motion on the plane, starting from the general 3-dimensional formulas above, e.g. (44) and (51) in spherical coordinates. Specialize the resulting formulas for the case of circular motion.
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The equations of motion
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A single particle
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(62) |
The equation of motion of a single particle is Newton's law
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(63) |
where is the acceleration and is the linear momentum, so in terms of
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(64) |
We define the angular momentum of a particle, and the torque acting upon it, as
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(65) |
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(66) |
Differentiating the definition of
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(67) |
Since is parallel to , the first term in the above cancels, and in the second term, from (64),
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(68) |
from which
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(69) |
• |
As discussed below , in the case of a closed system, and these two equations result in
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that is, the linear and angular momentum are conserved quantities. Note that does not require that , only that .
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The equations of motion - vectorial form
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Problem
Assuming that the acceleration is known as a function of t, compute:
a) The trajectory starting from 
b) A solution for each of the three Cartesian components
c) A solution for generic initial conditions
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Solution
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a) Let be the position of the particle in a reference system; then, the velocity and acceleration are given by
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(70) |
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(71) |
If the acceleration is known as a function of t, the trajectory is computed by integrating (71)
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(72) |
where the vectorial integration constants, and , are specified by the initial conditions of the problem (see c) below), typically by the position and velocity at some instant, say and .
_______________________________________
b) The integration of vectorial equations is also frequently performed after expressing , and in a particular system of coordinates. For example, in the Cartesian system (71) has the form
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(73) |
Now suppose that the three components of the acceleration are known as a function of time
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(74) |
Vectorial equations like this one can be integrated directly, provided that they are expressed in a particular system of coordinates and the unit vectors are constant or known expressions of the time

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(75) |
_______________________________________
c) The vectorial initial conditions and , specifying the integration constants , can also be written in components
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(76) |
Passing this information, the system can be solved taking these initial conditions into account -

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(77) |
Note that a vectorial equation is also always equivalent to a system of equations, one for each of the components, with or without initial conditions:
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(78) |
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(79) |
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The case of constant acceleration
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Problem
Starting from the vectorial equation (72) for , derive the formula for constant acceleration
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Motion under gravitational force close to the Earth's surface
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Problem
Derive a formula for motion under gravitational force close to the Earth's surface
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Motion under gravitational force not close to the Earth's surface
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The problem of two particles of masses and gravitationally attracted to each other, discarding relativistic effects, is formulated by Newton's law of gravity: the particles attract each other - so both move - with a force along the line that joins the particles and whose magnitude is proportional to , where represents the distance between the particles (this problem is treated in general form in the more advanced sections).
Problem
As a specific case, consider the problem of a particle of mass , where M is earth's mass, moving not close to the surface (if compared with the radius of earth).
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Circular motion
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Problem
Determine the angular velocity in the case of circular motion and show it is constant.
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Escape velocity
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Problem
Determine the velocity that a particle of mass m should have at Earth's surface in order to escape the planet's gravitational attraction.
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Different acceleration in different regions
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Problem
Suppose a particle is moving along the x axis according to
a) Determine the regions where the motion has positive and negative acceleration. Compute the position at .
b) Compute the velocity corresponding to , starting - not from this expression for but from the acceleration
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The equations of motion using tensor notation
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Using vector notation to formulate the equations of motion of a particle in Cartesian coordinates is relatively simple. However, for certain problems it may be advantageous to use curvilinear coordinates and / or tensor notation.

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Many-particle systems
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Center of Mass
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Given a system of n particles of masses with positions in some frame of reference K, the center of mass of the system is defined as
The velocity of the center of mass is thus
Problem
Consider a system of particles viewed from two systems of reference, K and K', that move with respect to each other at a constant velocity measured in K. Show that:
a) When is the velocity of the center of mass, the total momentum measured in K' is equal to 0.
b) The relation between and the velocity of the center of mass, both measured in K, is the same as the relation between the momentum, velocity and mass of a single particle of mass .
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The equations of motion
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Problem
Show that, for a system of particles with total mass , Newton's 2nd law for each particle implies that , where is the center of mass and is the external force applied to the system (it excludes the force that the particles exercise on each other).
Problem
Show that :
a) The total linear momentum satisfies
b) The total torque satisfies
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Static: reactions of planes and tensions on cables
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Problem
A bar AB of weight w and length L has one extreme on a horizontal plane and the other on a vertical place, and is kept in that position by two cables AD and BC. The bar forms an angle with the horizontal plane and its projection BC over this plane forms an angle with the vertical plane. The cable BC is on the same vertical plane as the bar.
Determine the reactions of the planes at A and B as well as the tensions on the cables.
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Lagrange equations
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(208) |
In the case of a closed system, or a system in a constant external field, the equations of motions can also be derived from the knowledge of the kinetic energy T and the potential energy U . For this purpose, construct the Lagrange function and derive the equations of motion as the Lagrange equations for L.
For closed systems, the potential energy is related to the force acting on each particle by the equation . Formally, is the gradient operator in the basis onto which is projected, and with respect to its coordinates - say in Cartesian basis and coordinates .
The kinetic energy - say T - of a single particle is given by
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(209) |
Since the kinetic energy T is additive, a system of n particles has
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(210) |
where is the velocity of the ith particle. Generally speaking, the potential energy of the system is a function of the coordinates of the n particles, and the Lagrangian is defined as
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(211) |
The potential energy is related to the force acting on each particle by the equation . Formally, is the gradient operator in the basis onto which is projected. Knowing the Lagrangian, we can derive the (Lagrange) equations of motion as
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(212) |
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Motion of a pendulum
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Problem
Determine the Lagrangian and equation of motion of a plane pendulum with a mass m at its extremity and a suspension point which:
a) Moves uniformly over a vertical circumference with a constant frequency
b) Oscillates horizontally on the plane of the pendulum according to .
c) Is fixed ( ). Integrate the equation of motion for small oscillations.
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Conservation laws
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Work
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By definition, the work performed by a force to move a particle an infinitesimal amount is . Thus, the work to move it from to along some path C is
Problem
A particle is submitted to a force whose Cartesian components are given by![" F[x]=a x^3+b x y^2+c z, "](/view.aspx?sf=219944_post/1841e97349db4de9df6aa4309eb4b61c.gif) !["F[y]=a y^3+b x y^2, "](/view.aspx?sf=219944_post/1644ceb17c3b8f8090751869ac0cabd0.gif) . Calculate the work done by this force when moving the particle along a straight line from the origin to a point ( ).
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Conservation of the total energy of a closed system or system in a constant external field
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Problem
Consider a closed system, or a system in a constant external field, for which the total force acting on the ith particle of the system can be derived from a potential, . Show that the total energy of the system is conserved.
Problem
Consider a system of n particles in two reference systems K and K' that move relative to each other with constant velocity . Show that the relation between the energies of the system, E and E', is given by
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Conservation of the total momentum of a closed system
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The conservation of the total momentum of a closed system of one particle is clear: if the particle does not interact with anything external, the force acting on it is zero, and from Newton's 2nd law follows .
For a closed system of many particles, while the total force acting on the system is equal to 0, there can be internal forces different from zero acting on each particle due to its interaction with the other particles. These internal forces, however, produce no acceleration of the system; in general, they cancel each other out due to Newton's 3rd law.
Problem
Consider a system of n particles measured in two frames of reference K and K' that move relative to each other with velocity . Show that the system's momenta and are related by
.
Problem
A particle of mass m moving with velocity leaves a half-space in which its potential energy is a constant and enters another in which its potential energy is a different constant . Determine the change in direction of motion of the particle; that is, where and are the angles between an axis perpendicular to the separating plane and the momentum in the regions 1 and 2.
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Conservation of angular momentum
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Like the conservation of linear momentum, the conservation of the total angular momentum of a closed system of one particle is natural: if the particle does not interact with anything external, the force acting on it is zero and therefore its torque . From it follows that , that is, the angular momentum is conserved.
Problem
a) Express the Cartesian components of the angular momentum , as well as its norm, in cylindrical and spherical coordinates.
b) Rewrite in cylindrical coordinates and using the cylindrical orthonormal basis of unit vectors, then do the same using spherical coordinates and the spherical basis.
Problem
Consider a system of n particles measured in two frames of reference K and K' whose origins have distance from each other. Show that the momenta and of the system are related by
where is the total momentum of the system as seen from K.
Problem
a) Consider a closed system of n particles, and two frames of reference K and K' that move relative to each other with a constant velocity . Show that the momenta and respectively measured in K and K' are related by
where is the distance from the origin of K to the origin of K', is the position of the center of mass as seen from K, and and are the total linear and angular momenta measured in K'.
b) Show that when the origin of K' is the center of mass , this formula reduces to
,
where is the total linear momentum in K.
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Solution
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a) The momentum of the system measured in K is given by
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(322) |
The right-hand side of the above can be expressed in terms of and using , where :
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(323) |
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(324) |
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(325) |
The term with can be expressed in terms of the position vector of the center of mass (copy the subexpression from (325) , paste, then edit)
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(326) |
To express in terms of and , introduce the relation between and
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(327) |
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(328) |
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(329) |
On the right-hand side, two of the sums represent and (copy the sum subexpressions, paste into the next line, then edit)
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(330) |
This is already the desired result.
_______________________________________
b) If the origin of K' is the center of mass , then
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(331) |
and were related in !["P_ = V_*Sum(m[a],a = 1 .. n)+`P'_`≡ "](/view.aspx?sf=219944_post/fd141d0423e9735e79dc1b53533ad45b.gif) . This relation can be used to express in terms of instead of
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(332) |
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(333) |
which is the result we were looking for.
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Cyclic coordinates
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Any generalized coordinate which does not appear explicitly in the Lagrangian is called cyclic. To any cyclic coordinate corresponds a conserved quantity. From
when is cyclic, the right-hand side is 0 and so the quantity is conserved.
Problem
The Lagrangian describing the movement of a particle in a central field has as a cyclic coordinate. Using cylindrical coordinates, show that the corresponding conserved quantity is the z component of the angular momentum
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Integration of the equations of motion
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Motion in one dimension
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Problem
For a closed system, or any system where the total energy is conserved, show the following:
a) The trajectory in implicit form can always be computed directly from E.
b) The turning points, if any, can be computed directly from U.
Problem
Determine the period of oscillations of a pendulum of mass m and length l in a gravitational field as a function of the amplitude of the oscillations
Problem
Integrate the equations of motion for a particle of mass m moving in a field whose potential energy is .
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Reduced mass
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The two-body problem
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Problem
Show that by placing the origin of the reference system at the center of mass , the problem of two particles that interact with each other can be reduced to the problem of a single particle of mass , herein called reduced mass, in an external field .
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A many-body problem
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Problem
A system consists of one particle of mass M and n particles of equal masses m.
a) Show, in steps, that eliminating the motion of the center of mass reduces the problem to one involving only n particles.
b) Show that when the result of a) becomes the result obtained for the previous two-body problem, equation .
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Solution
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a) Let represent the position vector of the particle of mass M and those of the particles of mass m. The Lagrangian is given by
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(386) |
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(387) |
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(388) |
Expand the formal powers of vectors to express them in terms of their Norm
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(389) |
As done in the two-body problem, introduce the relative vector positions of the n particles with respect to the particle of mass M
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(390) |
and place the origin of the reference system at the center of mass,
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(391) |
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(392) |
Using this equation and (390)≡ is sufficient to eliminate and from the Lagrangian (389). In steps, eliminating from the equation for the center of mass
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(393) |
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(394) |
To eliminate , use
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(395) |
Likewise, to eliminate use
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(396) |
Substitute, sequentially, these two equations into the Lagrangian (389)
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(397) |
To verify by eye each step for correctness, one can manipulate this expression surgically using subsindets . First expand only the Norms
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(398) |
This result is correct. Next expand only the Sums
, t), a = 1 .. n))^2/(m*n+M)^2+(1/2)*m*(m^2*n^2*(Sum(Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(diff(`ℝ_`[a](t), t))^2, a = 1 .. n))/(m*n+M)^2+2*M*m*n*(Sum(Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(diff(`ℝ_`[a](t), t))^2, a = 1 .. n))/(m*n+M)^2+M^2*(Sum(Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(diff(`ℝ_`[a](t), t))^2, a = 1 .. n))/(m*n+M)^2-m^2*Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(Sum(diff(`ℝ_`[a](t), t), a = 1 .. n))^2*n/(m*n+M)^2-2*M*m*Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(Sum(diff(`ℝ_`[a](t), t), a = 1 .. n))^2/(m*n+M)^2)-U](/view.aspx?sf=219944_post/07aae6027907b2179869b53717d2d899.gif)
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(399) |
This result also verifies visually. Collect the terms polynomial in Norm then Sum and normalize the coefficients
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(400) |
This Lagrangian involves only the n relative position vectors , achieving the reduction of the original problem of particles to a problem of only n particles.
_______________________________________
b) To obtain the result for the two-body problem, substitute into
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(401) |
Expand only the Sums and collect the Norm
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(402) |
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(403) |
Comparing with the definition of reduced mass (384)
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(404) |
we see the substitutions to transform (403) into (384) are
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(405) |
Substitute them, simultaneously (enclose the sequence of equations into a list), then simplify taking into account
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(406) |
This is the same as (385), the reduced Lagrangian for the two-body problem.
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Motion in a central field
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A one-body problem in a central field, is about the motion of a single particle of mass m in a field where the potential energy, and so the magnitude of the force, depends only on the distance between the particle and a fixed point, frequently chosen as the origin of the reference system. As seen above, the two-body problem , is reducible to a one-body problem in a central field.
Problem
The angular momentum of a particle that moves in a central field is conserved, so evolves in time on a fixed plane perpendicular to the constant . Show that the surface swept per second by the position vector is constant (Kepler's second law).
Problem
Starting from the constancy of the energy E and the angular momentum , compute the equations of movement and integrate them according to:
a) using differential elimination techniques to uncouple the system of equations of movement that involve both of and
b) interactively, one step at a time, uncouple the equations of movement eliminating from the problem, resulting in an implicit solution .
c) eliminate t from the problem to obtain an equation for , whose solution is the trajectory as
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Kepler's problem
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Problem
Show that, when , with the solution (442) for the motion in a central field, part c) of the previous problem,
becomes the equation of a conic section
where .
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Small Oscillations
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Free oscillations in one dimension
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Problem
Consider the case of 1-dimensional motion where the acting force opposes the motion as a function of the position, . This is the case, for example, of a spring, the more you stretch it (the bigger x), the more it opposes the stretching in the opposite direction . Write the equation of motion as Newton's 2nd law, then the Lagrangian and Lagrange equation for it, and integrate the equation for generic initial conditions
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Forced oscillations
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Problem
Consider oscillations in 1 dimension of a system on which an external force acts. For the oscillations to be small, must produce only small displacements. The total force is .
a) Write the equation of motion as Newton's 2nd law, then write the Lagrangian and Lagrange equations.
b) Integrate the equation of motion for generic initial conditions.
c) Specialize the solution computed in b) for to obtain
for some constants .
d) Show that a solution for the case considered in c), that is, , can be computed manually to get
for some other constants .
e) Specialize the solution of item d) in the case of resonance, when , by taking limits, thus obtaining
f) Show that the solution computed taking limits in e) can be compute directly by using dsolve and specializing the integration constants and that appear when solving the underlying differential equation.
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Oscillations of systems with many degrees of freedom
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Problem
Formulate the equations of motion for the free oscillations of a system with n degrees of freedom as
where represents the displacement of the generalized coordinate , the index a runs from 1 to n and there is an implicit sum over repeated indices (Einstein's convention).
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Solution
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(524) |
Denoting the generalized coordinates by , the potential energy can be expanded in series around the minimums . Since the movement consist only in small displacements around , it is sufficient to keep terms in the expansion up to order 2, resulting in an expression analogous to of the 1-dimensional case:
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(525) |
Likewise, for the kinetic energy,
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(526) |
where we take the at the minimums and denote them as
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(527) |
Both and can be split into symmetric and antisymmetric parts, with the antisymmetric parts canceling out in view of the symmetric character of in U and in T. Therefore, we can take and as symmetric without any loss of generality.
Before proceeding, note the similarity in notation between the three formulas (525) to (527) for T and U and tensor notation. In T and U the describe independent displacements, so one can think of as a tensor in an Euclidean space of displacements of generic abstract dimension n, with KroneckerDelta as the metric. It is then simpler to write the Lagrangian using tensor notation with a generic type of index (that admits and abstract n-dimension). For this purpose, introduce lowercaselatin indices from a to h to represent generic indices, and when necessary use KroneckerDelta as the metric.
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(528) |
Now introduce the tensors while making sure to indicate and are symmetric (passing together is not a problem, it has only one index)
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(529) |
The Lagrangian can now be written as
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(530) |
where Einstein's summation rule for repeated indices is used. Einstein's rule is taken into account by the system when differentiating, computing products and simplifying tensor indices. The simplest way to compute the Lagrange equations is to use the LagrangeEquations command
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(531) |
The same result can be computed via . Although not necessary, enclose the operation with forward quotes to delay its evaluation in order to see what is being computed
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(532) |
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(533) |
Simplifying tensor indices,
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(534) |
which is the same as (531).
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Rigid-body motion
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A rigid body is one where (in approximation) the distances between the body's parts remain unchanged. In what follows, for simplicity, the body is considered as discrete set of particles; the formulas for a continuous body can be obtained from those by replacing the masses of each particle by , where is the mass density as a function of the position and is the volume element, whose integration represent the body's volume.
This problem is systematically treated by using two reference systems: an inertial one K, where the observer is, and another one K', rigidly attached to the body, that moves with it and thus it is typically non-inertial. It is customary (not necessary) to place the origin of K' at the body's center of mass .
A rigid body is thus a system with six degrees of freedom: three indicating the position of the center of mass plus three angles specifying the orientation of the axes of K' with respect to those of K.
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Angular velocity
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Problem
a) Show, using graphs, that the velocity of a point P of a body, measured in an inertial reference system K, can be written as
where is the velocity of the origin of K', a frame of reference attached to the body's center of mass, is the body's angular velocity (its instantaneous counter-clockwise rotation speed around some axis in the direction of a unit vector ) and is the distance from the center of mass (origin of K') to the point P.
b) Derive algebraically the same result of a) , using the fact that vectors are defined up to parallel translation and so and are related by a rotation matrix which, as all rotation matrices, is orthogonal.
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Inertia tensor
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Problem
a) Show that using , derived in Angular velocity for the velocity of a point P of a rigid body in terms of and the position of P viewed from the center of mass , the kinetic energy of the rigid body can be written in terms of the positions of the n particles (not their velocities), the velocity of the center of mass and angular velocity as
b) Use tensor notation to show that this result can be rewritten as
where
is the Inertia tensor, represents the components of the vector and represents the components of the position vector of the particle.
Problem
Determine the Inertia tensor corresponding to a triatomic molecule that has the form of an isosceles triangle with two masses in the extremes of the base and a mass in the third vertex. The distance between the two masses is equal to a, and the height of the triangle is equal to h.
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Angular momentum of a rigid body
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In the section related to the conservation of angular momentum , the solution to the second Problem shows that the value of the angular momentum of a system of particles depends on the origin of the frame of reference. In this section, it is assumed that the origin is at the center of mass, so .
Problem
Show, using tensor notation, that in the K' system whose origin is at the center of mass, the components of the angular momentum of a rigid body can be expressed in terms of the inertia tensor and the components of the angular velocity as
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The equations of motion of a rigid body
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A rigid body is a system with six degrees of freedom: three indicating the position plus three angles specifying the orientation of the axes of K' with respect to those of K. As discussed in the equations of motion for many-particle systems , the two vectorial equations of motion are
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(615) |
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(616) |
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(617) |
where is the total momentum, is the total external force acting upon the body, is the external force acting upon the particle, the total angular momentum and is the total torque.
Problem
Show that the equations of movement of a rigid body can be computed as the Lagrange equations for and from the Lagrangian
where is the total mass, is the inertia tensor, is the potential energy for the external force , and .
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Solution
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(618) |
The required derivation is easy by expressing the Lagrangian in tensor notation from the beginning. In what follows, however, with the purpose of illustrating different techniques, Lagrange's equations are computed using vectorial notation, only switching to tensor notation at the time of expressing the time derivative of the angular momentum.
The kinetic energy T in vectorial form is derived in this problem for the inertia tensor
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(619) |
Adding the potential energy as a function of the coordinates (location of the center of mass) and (the rotation axis, so that ), the Lagrangian in vectorial form is given by
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(620) |
The first equation of movement, for the total momentum is derived as the Lagrange equation for this Lagrangian
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(621) |
![%diff(%diff((1/2)*(Sum(m[i]*Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(Omega_(t))^2*Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(`r'_`[i])^2-m[i]*Physics:-Vectors:-`.`(Omega_(t), `r'_`[i])^2, i = 1 .. n))+(1/2)*Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(V_(t))^2*mu+U(R_(t), Phi_(t)), V_(t)), t) = %diff((1/2)*(Sum(m[i]*Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(Omega_(t))^2*Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(`r'_`[i])^2-m[i]*Physics:-Vectors:-`.`(Omega_(t), `r'_`[i])^2, i = 1 .. n))+(1/2)*Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(V_(t))^2*mu+U(R_(t), Phi_(t)), R_(t))](/view.aspx?sf=219944_post/a69708e8895487ab2c3b8e4537faa759.gif)
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(622) |
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(623) |
On the right-hand side, )(`#mover(mi("R"),mo("→"))`, `#mover(mi("Φ",fontstyle = "normal"),mo("→"))`)](/view.aspx?sf=219944_post/0fdbac3c80ddbde76d524a7dbb9fbf55.gif)  with respect to its first argument , equivalent to the gradient taking as the coordinates, and is the total momentum
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(624) |
Note however that in Maple the Vectors:-Gradient command computes the gradient with respect to Cartesian, cylindrical or spherical coordinates, not an arbitrary vector . If more precision is required, the dependency of the potential energy could be expressed in terms of the norm of , as in
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(625) |
in which case differentiating with respect to is equivalent to the definition of directional derivative
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(626) |
The same computation, this time with respect to the coordinates where is the corresponding velocity,
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(627) |
![%diff(%diff((1/2)*(Sum(m[i]*Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(Omega_(t))^2*Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(`r'_`[i])^2-m[i]*Physics:-Vectors:-`.`(Omega_(t), `r'_`[i])^2, i = 1 .. n))+(1/2)*Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(V_(t))^2*mu+U(R_(t), Phi_(t)), Omega_(t)), t) = %diff((1/2)*(Sum(m[i]*Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(Omega_(t))^2*Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(`r'_`[i])^2-m[i]*Physics:-Vectors:-`.`(Omega_(t), `r'_`[i])^2, i = 1 .. n))+(1/2)*Physics:-Vectors:-Norm(V_(t))^2*mu+U(R_(t), Phi_(t)), Phi_(t))](/view.aspx?sf=219944_post/a79e177939f3becae4a594ca7b49b7c0.gif)
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(628) |
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(629) |
Switching to tensor notation as done in the other problems, the left-hand side can be rewritten as the time derivative of the components of the angular momentum .
![[genericindices = lowercaselatin_is, spaceindices = lowercaselatin_ah, tensors = {Physics:-Dgamma[mu], Omega[a], Physics:-Psigma[mu], Physics:-d_[mu], Physics:-g_[mu, nu], Physics:-gamma_[a, b], `r'`[i, a], Physics:-LeviCivita[alpha, beta, mu, nu]}]](/view.aspx?sf=219944_post/5f6db16d51545b7aa3dbc66460858fe8.gif)
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(630) |
Introducing tensor components for the vectors of (629)
, t)).(diff(r(x), x)), _[i], true) = (diff(Omega[b](t), t))*(diff(r(x), x))[i, b], diff(Omega_(t), t) = KroneckerDelta[a, b]*(diff(Omega[b](t), t)), Norm((diff(r(x), x))*_[i])^2 = (diff(r(x), x))[i, c]^2, (diff(r(x), x))*_[i] = (diff(r(x), x))[i, a], (D[2](U))(R_(t), Phi_(t)) = Component((D[2](U))(R_(t), Phi_(t)), a)](/view.aspx?sf=219944_post/f103857a6b4d45493fb6578f3d26183e.gif)
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(631) |
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(632) |
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(633) |
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(634) |
Introducing the expression for the inertia tensor,
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(635) |
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(636) |
From the result (614) for the problem of representing the angular momentum of a rigid body in terms of the inertia tensor the left-hand side is the derivative of the components of the angular momentum
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(637) |
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(638) |
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(639) |
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(640) |
The right-hand side is the component of the variation of the potential energy with respect to . A graphics analysis of and algebraic derivation as done in the problem of the section Angular velocity results in
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(641) |
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(642) |
As shown in this problem of the section on the equations of motion for many-particle systems , the right-hand side of this result of that is the total torque , resulting in the second equation of movement of a rigid body, for the time derivative of the angular momentum
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(643) |
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Non-inertial coordinate systems
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When describing the motion of a particle as seen from a non-inertial reference system (e.g. a rotating planet, like the Earth), we also see "acceleration" that is not due to any force but instead to the fact that the reference system itself is accelerated.
Problem
Consider a non-inertial reference system K' which moves with non-constant translational velocity with regards to an inertial reference system .
a) Show that the Lagrangian L' in K' is given by
where is the translational acceleration of the frame K' as seen from .
b) Show that the Lagrange equation derived from this Lagrangian in the frame K' is
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Coriolis force and centripetal force
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Problem
Consider a second non-inertial frame of reference J whose origin coincides with that of K', but which rotates relative to K' with variable angular velocity . Denote the position vector and velocity in the non-inertial frame J as and ,
a) Show that the Lagrangian L in the non-inertial frame J is given by
b) Show that the Lagrange equation derived from this Lagrangian in the frame J is
where is the Coriolis force and is the centrifugal force.
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Solution
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a) The starting point is the Lagrangian in the frame . Denoting vectors and the Lagrangian in with the suffix 0, is given by
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(658) |
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(659) |
The velocities of the particle in the frames and K' are related by
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(660) |
where is the translational velocity of K' viewed from . Inserting this relation (660) into gives , the result of the previous problem
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(661) |
In turn, the velocities and in the frames K' and J are related by
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(662) |
where is the angular velocity of the frame J viewed from K'. Also, since K' and J have the same origin, and the Lagrangian in J is
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(663) |
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(664) |
Two of these terms can be regrouped as
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(665) |
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(666) |
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(667) |
which is the expected result.
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b) To compute Lagrange's equation in vectorial form, one can use the standard formula as in the previous problem

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(668) |
Evaluate these derivatives and replace
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(669) |
Isolating and collecting vector products we get the expected result
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(670) |
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(671) |
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Part II (forthcoming)

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