Modern Approach to Classical Mechanics

The first of these quantifies the notion of time.

The second states conservation of momentum for two-particle
interactions, which is equivalent to Newton's third law.
THE TWO PRINCIPLES
The laws of mechanics can be formulated in two principles.
Physical space is three dimensional, Euclidean, and endowed with the
usual Euclidean metric.


The Euclidean metric defines the distance D between two points x
i
and y
i
,
with coordinates x and y.
( )
2
i i
i
D x y =

PRINCIPLE 1
There exist certain inertial frames of reference with the following two properties.

Property A) Every isolated particle moves in a straight line in such a frame.

Property B) If the notion of time is quantified by defining the unit of time so that
one particular isolated particle moves at constant velocity in this frame, then
every other isolated particle moves at constant velocity in this frame.

Buried in these statement is the notion of time & non-relativistic idea of
simultaneity.

The transformations that connect such inertial frames are called Galileian.
PRINCIPLE 2 : Conservation of Momentum
Consider two particles 1 and 2 isolated from all other matter,
but not from each other, and observed from an inertial frame.
( )
= Let be the velocity of particle 1, 2, at time .
j
v t j t
>
12
Then there exists a constant 0and a constant independent
of the time such that for all time .
K
t
( ) ( ) + =
1 12 2
v t v t K
Involving particles 2 and 3 one arrives at,
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
+ = + =
2 23 3 3 31 1
, v t v t L v t v t M
K, L and M depend on the particular experiment, but the > 0 do not.
ij
Existence of mass

12 23 31
The are related according to = 1
ij
It follows that there exist positive constants m= 1 , 2 , 3 , such that previous equations
can be put in the form
+ =
+ =
+ =
1 1 2 2 12
2 2 3 3 23
3 3 1 1 31
mv m v P
m v m v P
m v mv P
' s are Momenta
ij
P
Principle 2 states the law of conservation of momentum in two-particle interactions.
The masses of the particles are not unique.
Once a standard or reference mass has been chosen, there is just one number ,
associated with each body, independent of any object with which it is interacting.
i
m
+ =
+ =
1 1 2 2
2 2 3 3
The vectors on the right hand side of previous equation set are constants,
so time derivatives yield
0
0

m a m a
m a m a
+ =
=
=
3 3 1 1
12 1 1
21 2 2
0
Lets say there is a force on particle 1 due to the presence of (or by) particle 2 .
Similarly, , then the first equation becomes

m a m a
F m a
F m a
+ =
12 21

0 (Newton's third Law)
we should remember that it is his formulation that lies at the basis of classical mechanics
as we know it today.
F F
Consequences of Newtons Equations: Stability & Chaos
The general problem in the mechanics of a single particle is to solve for the
function ( ) when the force is a given function of , , and . The differential
equation

x t F x x t
( )
=
2
2
, ,
For many years physicists concentrated on trying to find solutions for a
given force with various different initial conditions.
There remain many subtle and funda
d x
F x x t m
dt
o
1 0
2 0 1 0 0
mental questions, largely having
to do with the stability of solutions.
Consider the behavior of two solutions of whose initial positions x (t ) and
x (t ) =x (t ) + x(t ) are infinitesimally
F
1 0 2 0
close [assume that x (t ) = x (t )].
o Let Dx(t) = l x(t)l be the distance between the two trajectories at time t.
o
0
Then the solutions of the differential equation are called stable if Dx(t)
approaches either zero or a constant of the order of x(t ) and
unstable if it grows without bound as t increases.
Stability is highly significant because initial conditions cannot be established with
absolute precision in any experiment on a classical mechanical system.
Consider dynamical systems in which the two types of initial conditions are mixed
together so tightly that it is impossible to separate them: in every neighborhood, no
matter how small.

Even though such a system is entirely deterministic, predicting its end state would
require knowing its initial conditions with infinite precision. Such a system is called
chaotic or said to exhibit chaos. An everyday example of chaos, is the weather!
According to observer A, a particle has position vector x, with components x , i = 1, 2, 3
In the observe B frame, position vector of the particle is y, with coordinates y .
i
i
There must be some transformation law, that translates one observer's coordinates
into the other's, or they could communicate with each other and could tell whether
they are looking at the same particle.
Force is a Vector
A transformation must give the x, in terms of the y, and vice versa: it should
consist of equations of the form
( ) ( ) = = , , ,
i i i i
y f x t x g y t
If the functions are known, they can be used to calculate the velocities and
accelerations as seen by the second observer in terms of the observations of the first.
i
f
c c
= +
c c
c c c c
= + + +
c c c c c
c
2 2 2
2
2
i i
i j
j
i i i i
i j j k j
j j k j
f f
y x
x t
f f f f
and y x x x x
x x x x t
t
( ) ( ) ( )
= = +
If both coordinate systems are Cartesian, the linear transformation between them
must be of the form: ,
i i ik k i
y f x t f t x b t
( ) ( )
( )
|
|
If, both frames of reference are inertial, they are moving at constant velocity and are
not rotating with respect to each other, and then the = must be linear
in t and the = mus
i i
ik ik
b t t
f t t be time independent.
| =
Reduced equation,

shows that the acceleration as measured by the second observer is a linear homogeneous
function of the acceleration as me
i ik k
y x
asured by the first.
| It is important that the same coefficients appear in the expressions for the acceleration
and for the position to mean that the acceleration is a vector.
ij
That, together with the F = ma equation, guarantees that force is also a vector.
Lagrangian Formulation of Mechanics
The equations of motion can be rewritten in the appropriate configuration
manifold.

The constraints are taken into account from the outset.

The physical content of Lagrange's equations is the same as that of Newton's.

But in addition being logically more appealing.

Lagrange's formulation has several important advantages.
The new coordinates are chosen in a way that depends on the particular
dynamical system.

These are called generalized coordinates.

The number of freedoms and the shape, or topology, of the region in which
the system is free to move is determined by the constraints placed upon the
system; it is called the configuration manifold Q.

The new coordinates, called the q

, will lie on Q, and their number will be

the number of freedoms, which is also the dimension of Q.
Constraints & Configuration Manifold
Start with an example. Think of a sphere rolling on a curved surface under the
action of gravity.
The sphere consists of many particles whose motion is correlated so that they
always form a rigid sphere.
There is always one of them in contact with the surface as the body is rolling,
instantaneously at rest.
The forces on the sphere are far from simple.
The motion of a dynamical system is often constrained by external agents
applying forces that are initially unknown.
Suppose one is dealing with a system of N particles and that the constraints are
given by a set of K constraint equations of the form
The f
I
are assumed to be differentiable functions of their arguments.
The x
I
, are the position vectors of the N particles.
Constraints given by previous equation are called holonomic (meaning
essentially integrable).
More general constraints depend also on the velocities (rolling constraints are
among them); they are given by equations of the form
There exist constraint actually as non-integrable differential equations, such,
velocity-dependent constraints are non-holonomic.
Finally, there are other types of constraints entirely that are not even given by
equations, for example, those given by expressions of the form
Constraints & Work: An Example
A particle in 3-space constrained to a 2-dimensional surface
given by an equation of the form f (x, t) = 0
In this example N = 1 (a single particle)
and K = 1 (a single constraint equation).
The Newtonian equation of motion of
the particle is

Where F(x, x, t) is the known external force
and C is the unknown force of constraint
that the surface exerts on the particle.
We have 4 equations: 1 (constraint)+
3(equations of motion) for 6 unknown
functions of the time:
3 components of x + 3 components of C
Clearly this is not enough to determine the motion.
What is needed here is some physical input that will allow us to choose among
the different possibilities for C.
This input will be obtained by what seems at first an arbitrary choice
: the forces parallel to the surface will be eliminated by choosing C to
be perpendicular (normal) to the surface. (place restrictions on the
work done by the
constraint forces)
The way to obtain a vector perpendicular to a surface is the following:
Let ( , ) . be the equation of any surface.
Then ( , ) is a vector perpendicular to the surface at position x and time t,
provided that 0 on the surface.
f x t const
f x t
f
=
V
V =
The constraint force perpendicular or normal to the surface can be written as:
Here . can be any number, in particular a function of t.
Now the four equations involve only four unknown functions, namely
(t) and the three components of x(t).
Lets understand the physical implications of this assumption.
Assume that the external force depends on a potential:

and using

we get,
Now suppose that x(t) is a solution of the equations of motion. Then since the particle
remains on the surface, f (x(t), t) = 0, and therefore df/dt = 0. But
and
it follows that
This means that the total energy E of the particle changes if V or f are explicit
function of the time or if the constraint surface is moving.
= If the energy is changing, that is, if dE/dt 0, the work-energy theorem implies
that there is work being done on the system.
c c we are assuming that a V/ t = 0, implies that the work
is performed by the surface.
If the surface moves, the particle velocity
need not be tangent to the surface, and even if C
is perpendicular to the surface . 0 the surface
through C can do work at a nonzero rate.
C x =
In reality most surfaces exert forces which have
tangential components such as friction and
therefore do work.
3
Lets define what are called generalized coordinates in the 3N -space , for which Q is a
coordinate hypersurface.
Consider a region of E that contains a point x , of Q, and let , =1, ...
N
i
q
q
o
o
o , 3N, be new
coordinates in that region, a set of invertible functions of the x :
i
Generalized Coordinates:Introduction
for x , in that region.
The set of equations define a transformation between the x and the .
Invertibility means that the Jacobian of the transformation is nonsingular.
i
i
q
o
Assume further that the are continuous and, because accelerations will lead to second
derivatives, twice continuously differentiable functions.
q
o
Examples Of Configuration Manifolds
THE FINITE LINE
THE CIRCLE
The finite line, which may be curved, applies
to the motion of a bead along a wire of
length l.
The circle applies to the motion of a plane
pendulum . Denote the circle by S
1.

Single generalized coordinate is usually taken
to be the angle and is called rather than q.
THE PLANE
THE TWO-SPHERE S
2
The plane applies to the motion of a particle on
a table. The coordinates are conveniently chosen
to be the usual plane Cartesian, plane polar, or
other familiar coordinates.
THE DOUBLE PENDULUM
The manifold, without any particular name, but
written S
2
x S
2
, for the motion of a double
spherical pendulum, consists of one spherical
pendulum suspended from another.

Here Q is of dimension four and quite hard to
visualize. The coordinates on it may be chosen
to be the two azimuth angles and the two
colatitudes
1
,
2
,
1
,
2
.
Derivation of the Lagranges Equation
We now turn to writing the equations of motion in terms of the generalized
coordinates on the configuration manifold Q. q
o
A surface criss-crossed
by coordinate curves,
with tangents to them.
We start with the , these vectors are to be tangent to the configuration manifold Q.
i
t
Any vector that is tangent to one of these curves is tangent to the manifold.
n tangents to the manifold can be obtained from then coordinate curves.
DAlemberts Principle
We prove that the tangent vectors can be put in the form
are a set of n arbitrary constants, and because the x are functions of the , the
expressions on the right-hand side of this equation are also functions of the .
i
q
q
o o
o
c
Inserting into D'Alember's equation t
1 N
Next, we turn to the F . Assume that the forces are conservative, so that
F =- V(x ,. . . . , x ). Then
i
i i
V
Finally, we deal with the x :
i
(a sort of "law of cancellation of dots")
In the last term on the right -hand side of a previous equation:
Multiplying by m and summing over i, yields
i
2
1
where T = , is the total kinetic energy of the system of particles. Hence,
2
i i
mv

If T is written out in terms of the generalized coordinates , these equations are the
equations of motion in terms of the .
Since, V/ = 0, one can define a new function
q
q
q
o
o
o
c c
called the Lagrangian function or simply the Lagrangian.
In terms of the Lagrangian function, the equations of motion become
These are called Lagrange's equations
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