Physics 308: Advanced Classical Mechanics

Bryn Mawr College, Fall 2011

Problem Set 6

Distributed: Thursday, October 27, 2011.

Due: Thursday, November 3, 2011 at the start of class.

Reading
For Tuesday, please read Sections 8.1 through 8.4 (inclusive) in Taylor. And for Thursday,
please finish Chapter 8 (8.5 through 8.8).

As always, I encourage you to work collaboratively on these problems (with the exception of
the problem labeled INDIVIDUAL PROBLEM, which must be completed by you alone).

Problems
1. Forces of constraint: A great advantage of Lagrangian mechanics is that you dont
have to worry about forces of constraint (normal forces, tension, etc.) when deriving
equations of motion. But in cases where you actually want to know what the forces of
constraint are, you need to get clever. In class, we found two ways to calculate the forces
of constraint within the Lagrangian framework. The first (not covered in Taylors book)
entailed introducing a very steep potential function V (~r), and the second made use of the
so-called Lagrange multiplier (t) and the constraint equation f (x, y).
(a) Using the steep potential approach, show that for a mass m sliding down a frictionless
plane inclined at an angle , the normal force from the plane is given by the familiar
mg cos . Note: the inclined plane is rigidly attached to the floor.
(b) Solve the same problem using Lagrange Multiplier approach.
(c) In Example 7.8 (p. 279) Taylor calculates the tension in the string for a simple Atwood
machine. He uses the constraint equation: f (x, y) = x + y = constant. Another
perfectly legitimate expression of constraint would be f (x, y) = 7(x + y) = constant
(if x + y is a constant, then surely 7(x + y) is also a constant). If you use this alternate
expression for f (x, y), do you get the correct tension? Comment on this.
2. Coordinate Choices Can Obfuscate Physics: In class, we calculated the Hamiltonian
for a free particle in 2D using Cartesian coordinates. We found that neither x nor y
appeared in the Hamiltonian and so both were ignorable coordinates, which implied
that their conjugate momenta (px and py ) were conserved. Well now repeat this exercise
but instead use 2D polar coordinates (r, ).
(a) Find the Lagrangian for the system.
(b) Find q(q, p) from p = L / q and calculate H(r, , pr , p )
(c) Using Hamiltons Equations, find the time-evolution of the coordinates and momenta.
(d) What quantity does p correspond to? Explain using Newtonian reasoning why p = 0.

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 (e) Why isnt pr = 0?
(f) Since H doesnt explicitly depend on t, we know that H is conserved. And since
the relationship between (r, ) and (x, y) is independent of time, we also know that
H = T + U is the total energy of the system. Show explicitly that H = 0. Does this
help explain why pr 6= 0?
(g) Comment on the benefit of a wise choice of coordinates.
3. Ignorable Cordinates: Do Taylor 13.21. This problem is also good preparation for our
next topic: central force motion.
4. Mixing Coordinates: Do Taylor 13.25. The Hamiltonian formalism allows you to form
a coordinate transformation that involves both the position and the momentum. You
cannot do this in Lagrangian mechanics.
5. (INDIVIDUAL) Phase Space Orbits: Do Taylor 13.28. Note: this force is not the
same as the spring force (Hookes Law).
6. Liouvilles Theorem and a Beam of Particles: Do Taylor 13.35 to get a sense of
whats going on inside the particle beam pipe at colliders like the Tevatron (well, when
the Tevatron was still running that is...) and the LHC. For what its worth, Liouvilles
theorem is also applicable in optical systems, which is especially important if youre de-
signing a telescope or microscope. The so-called etendue (a.k.a. the A product), which
characterizes how spread out light is in area and angle, is directly analagous to a phase-
space volume. Liouville tells you that A cannot increase in free space or via reflection
or refraction in an optical system (though you certainly can decrease it if you design the
optics poorly and truncate some light rays). The etendue is a fundamental quantity that
you cannot circumvent no matter how good of an optical engineer you are.

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