PHYS 504 Fall 2010

Assignment 2
due Wednesday, September 22
[JS] J.V. José and E.J. Saletan, Classical dynamics: a contemporary approach, Cambridge
University Press, 1998.
[T] D. Tong, Lectures on Classical Dynamics,
http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/dynamics.html
[G] D. Greenwood, Classical Dynamics, Dover, 1997.

1. Scott MacDonald has office hours on Th at 11 a.m. in SSC 216A.

2. You can turn in your homework either in class or to my SSC mailbox no later than 4:00 p.m.
on the due date.

Part I. Reading assignment

• [JS] Sections: 2.1-2.2
• [T] Sections: 2.2-2.3
• [G] Sections: 1.2-1.5

Part II. Problems

Problem 1. (10 pts) A variable mass system
(i) Study the worked example in [JS] p. 25-26.
(ii) A water droplet falling in the atmosphere is spherical. Assume that as the droplet
passes through a cloud, it acquires mass at a rate k A, where k > 0 is a constant and
A is the cross-sectional area of the droplet. Consider droplet of initial radius r0 that
enters a cloud with a velocity v0 . Assume no resistive force and show that
(a) the radius increases linearly with the time,
(b) if r0 is negligably small then the speed increases linearly with the time within the
cloud.

Problem 2. (15 pts) Kinetic energy in generalized coordinates

Find an explicit expression for the kinetic energy, T , and the corresponding momenta,
pi = ∂T /∂ q̇i , for a point particle of mass m in the following coordinate systems in R3 :
(i) cylindrical (ρ, φ, ζ):
x = ρ cos φ , y = ρ sin φ , z =ζ.
(ii) parabolic (ξ, η, φ)
1 2
x = ξη cos φ , y = ξη sin φ , z = (ξ − η 2 ) .
2
1
(iii) oblate spheroidal (ξ, η, φ)

x = c cosh ξ sin η cos φ , y = c cosh ξ sin η sin φ , z = c sinh ξ cos η ,

where c is some constant with dimensions of length.

Save those results for future use!

Problem 3. (10 pts) Geodesic motion

Consider the motion of a system described by n generalized coordinates, q α (t), α =
1, . . . , n. In the absence of any forces the Lagrangian of the system is simply its kinetic
energy, L = T , of the form
1
T = gαβ (q) q̇ α q̇ β .
2
Assume that the symmetric tensor gαβ = gβα depends on the coordinates, but does not
depend on time. The nondegeneracy of the kinetic energy requires that the matrix (gαβ ) be
positive definite. In particular, det(gαβ ) > 0 and there is a inverse matrix (g αβ ) satisfying
g αγ gγβ = δ α β .
Show that the equations of motion for the system,

d ∂T ∂T
α
− α = 0, α = 1, . . . , n ,
dt ∂ q̇ ∂q

take the form of a geodesic equation

q̈ α + Γα β γ
βγ q̇ q̇ = 0, α = 1, . . . , n , (3.1)

where  
1 ∂gβδ ∂gγδ ∂gβγ
Γα
βγ = g αδ γ
+ β
− .
2 ∂q ∂q ∂q δ
Note that the Christoffel symbols, Γα α α
βγ are symmetric, Γβγ = Γγβ .

2
Problem 4. (10 pts) Principle of virtual work

M N
O

D E F g

C B A

M1 M2

Two masses M1 and M2 are connected by a system of levers as in the figure. All the
levers are joint to the walls and each other by freely rotating joints A , . . . , N . Suppose
that the distances along the horizontal levers satisfy:

BC ON DE
= α, = β, = γ.
AC OM DF

Use the Principle of Virtual Work (d’Alembert Principle) to determine the relation between
the masses M1 and M2 if the system is in static equilibrium.

Problem 5. (5 pts) Generalized forces

A rigid rod of length ℓ undergoes small motion in which the coordinates (x1 , x2 )
represent the vertical displacements of the ends. The configuration is also given by the
generalized coordinates (z, θ), where z is the vertical displacement of the center and θ
is the rotation angle. What are the transformation equations between the two sets of
coordinates. For the given applied forces at the ends, evaluate the generalized forces Qz
and Qθ .