Theoretical Mechanics II - Homework 1

Due date: 03/22/2017

Problem 1. Prove the following matrix properties.

(a) (AB)| = B| A| .
(b) Tr AB = Tr BA.
(c) Show that for an orthogonal matrix, all eigenvalues have unit modulus and eigenvectors
are orthogonal.
(d) Show that the product of two rotation matrix is still a rotation matrix. That is to show
U1 U2 = U3 where U represents the rotation matrix.

Problem 2. Lets say the new bases are obtained by rotating the old bases around x-axis
by 45 degrees, then rotating it again around the intermediate y-axis by 45 degrees.
(a) Find the rotation matrix U that relates the old and new two coordinate systems.
(b) Previous two-step operation can be achieved through one simple rotation around a
certain axis. Please find this rotation axis and the corresponding rotational angle.
(c) A vector D ~ is rotated by 30 degrees around the y-axis of the old coordinate system.

Find the representation of the rotation matrix in the new coordinate systems.

Problem 3. (Coriolis force) An angry bird battle ground is located at north hemisphere
of latitude . An angry bird of mass m is launched with initial velocity is (vxo , vyo , vzo ) where
we choose the coordinate axes x, y and z to represent east, north and up direction. For
simplicity, ignore the centrifugal and Euler forces in the following discussions. The angular
frequency of Earth rotation is .
(a) The velocity of the angry bird, ~v = (vx , vy , vz )T , changes with time since it is subject
to Coriolis force and gravity. Work out the explicit form of the Coriolis force. And obtain
coupled equations of motion that d~v /dt = L ~v + f~g , where f~g = (0, 0, g)T .
(b) Find the eigenvalues (1 , 2 , 3 ) and corresponding eigenvectors (~v1 , ~v2 , ~v3 ) of matrix L.
(c) Lets choose the eigenvectors obtained above to be our new bases, obtain an expression
of f~g in the new bases.
(d) In the new bases, the equations of motion are decoupled, therefore, we can solve the
velocity as a function of time. Obtain expressions for vx (t), vy (t) and vz (t).

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(e) Estimate the deflection distance in the east-west direction as the angry bird hits the

horizontal given that the initial velocity (0, 250 3, 250) m/s, = 60 and = 7.3 105
rad/s. You can approximate the flight time to be 2vzo /g and estimate the deflection distance
to the lowest order of .

Problem 4. (Foucault pendulum) A pendulum swings back and forth in a plane (2D mo-
tion, say it swings in x-z plane). However, if it is placed on the surface of Earth, the plane
of the swinging motion (x-z plane) would slowly rotate. It was demonstrated by French
physicist Leon Foucault in 1851 to show the rotation of Earth. Please show that the time
the Foucault pendulum required to go back to its initial plane (that is the precession pe-
riod) is 2/( sin ), where is the angular frequency of Earth rotation and is the latitude.