Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Foundations of classical
mechanics
by 187.232.150.6 on 05/05/18. For personal use only.
Definition I:
15
16 2. FOUNDATIONS OF CLASSICAL MECHANICS
Definition II:
Definition III:
Definition IV:
Law II:
Law III:
The first law encapsulates what was known about the motion of
a single mass at the time. Galileo had already concluded empirically
that a particle moving without the influence of a force tries to preserve
its velocity4 . Descartes expanded Gaileo’s conclusion by stating that a
body (in the absence of a force) only moves in a straight line and never
A Modern Approach to Classical Mechanics Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com
along a curve5 .
Regarding the first law, ARISTOTLE6 believed that in absence of
a motive power all bodies (on earth) would come to rest. As to the sec-
ond law, Newton’s great achievement was to recognize that the ‘change
by 187.232.150.6 on 05/05/18. For personal use only.
ii) It may seem that force is defined by the second law. But a force
can be determined by comparison with another force that serves
as a reference (in a static measurement); then the second law is
more than a mere definition of force.
A Modern Approach to Classical Mechanics Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com
systems11 .
The application of analysis began rather shortly after the appearance
of the “Principia”. The French clergyman P. VARIGNON12 was the
first one writing 1700 Newton’s law for rectilinear motion in the form
ddx/dt2 = y, where ddx = d2 x and y represents the force. Thus he
established analytical mechanics. Using the new mathematical language
Varignon published numerous articles on the motion of a body in the
Memoires de l’Academie Royale (Paris) from 1700 until 1711.
A Modern Approach to Classical Mechanics Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com
p = mv. (2.1)
F = F1 + F2 (2.2)
mẍ = F1
mÿ = F2 (2.5)
mz̈ = F3 .
16
One may suppose that there is an unjustified arbitrariness in translating ‘the
change of motion is proportional to the force’ of Newton’s second law into an equal
sign between the change of momentum and the force. From Newton’s reference to
Galileo’s discovery ‘that the descent of bodies observed the duplicate ratio of time’ as
being in accord with the first and the second law (The Principia, Scholium at the end
of “Axioms, or Laws of Motion”) one can infer the equality. Further, the continuing
application of the second law in the “Principia” to the motion in various central
forces leads to same results as the analytical treatment. Moreover, in Varignon’s
communications to the academy and in Euler’s “Mechanica...” the equality (apart
from a constant) between the time derivative of the momentum and the force appears.
22 2. FOUNDATIONS OF CLASSICAL MECHANICS
• The third law relates the forces that two bodies exert on each
other:
F21 = −F12 , (2.6)
where Fik is the force applied by body k to body i (action =
reaction).
In general, the force may also depend on the time t and velocity of the
particle v. A simple example is a particle experiencing the force F as
well as an additional frictional force proportional to the velocity (E)
mr̈ = −λṙ + F.
In the general case, when F = F(r, v, t), the equation of motion (2.3)
or (2.4) (in coordinate representation a system of three coupled second
order ordinary differential equations) can only be solved numerically. If,
A Modern Approach to Classical Mechanics Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com
ṙ = v
v̇ = F/m. (2.8)
r = R(r0 , v0 ; t)
v = V(r0 , v0 ; t). (2.9)
(This is not true for the orbit in configuration space! See, for instance,
Figs. 15.9 and 15.10.) The explicit forms of the functions R and V
are to be calculated by solving the equations of motion. The following
statements address the existence and general properties of the solutions.
Since F is assumed to be independent of time t and velocity ṙ, the
equations of motion (2.4) are ordinary differential equations involving
only second derivatives with respect to time. Therefore, they are in-
variant under the time reversal transformation
t → −t,
because replacing d/dt by −d/dt leaves the second time derivative d2 /dt2
in (2.4) unchanged. This means that the motion in configuration space
is reversible: for the solutions of (2.4), the orbits are the same23 irre-
21
Autonomous means that the equations do not explicitly depend on time t.
22
Paths in configuration space are termed ‘orbits’, and paths in phase space are
termed ‘trajectories’.
23
A simple example of an equation that is not invariant under time reversal is
d2 x dx
+γ = 0,
dx2 dt
2.4. CONSTANTS OF MOTION 25
ṙ = −v,
v̇ = −F/m;
only the direction of the velocity and the acceleration is changed. Un-
der time reversal, in phase space, the particle moves along the same
trajectory but in the opposite direction.
A Modern Approach to Classical Mechanics Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com
by 187.232.150.6 on 05/05/18. For personal use only.
t = f (r(t), v(t)) ,
then in the remaining five relations, the explicit time dependence can be
eliminated, giving five time independent constants of the motion. These
are the conserved quantities
by 187.232.150.6 on 05/05/18. For personal use only.
They depend on time only through the dynamical variables r(t) and
v(t), i.e. ∂Ij /∂t = 0, such that
d ∂Ij dr ∂Ij dv
Ij (r(t), v(t)) = + = 0. (2.14)
dt ∂r dt ∂v dt
A constant of the motion, or a conserved quantity, is also called a (time
dependent or time independent) first integral or integral of the mo-
tion.
Each relation (2.13) represents a five-dimensional hypersurface in
six-dimensional phase space. The trajectory of the particle lies in each
of these hypersurfaces; it is therefore the curve of intersection of all five
hypersurfaces26 . The orbit is the projection of the trajectory in phase
space onto configuration space (Note: the uniqueness of the phase space
motion is lost in the projection). Thus, knowledge of all the conserved
quantities implies possession of the unique solution, even though solu-
tions of the ordinary differential equations were not calculated.
Unfortunately, one cannot, on the basis of just these statements
about the existence of a solution, deduce how the conserved quantities
26
The situation is a generalization of the one in three-dimensional space, where
the intersection of two (independent) surfaces (i.e. two-dimensional manifolds) is a
curve (a one-dimensional manifold). A concrete example of such an intersection is
shown in Fig. 4.3.
2.4. CONSTANTS OF MOTION 27
d
mṙr̈ = (mṙ2 /2) = Fṙ,
dt
t1 r1
1 1 dr
mv12 − mv02 = F dt = Fdr, (2.15)
2 2 dt
0 r0 ,C
27
Later we see that because of the structure of Eqs. (2.8), three conserved quan-
tities with certain properties are sufficient to give a complete solution (see Section
14.1).
28 2. FOUNDATIONS OF CLASSICAL MECHANICS
is the kinetic energy28 of the particle with velocity v, and the integral
r1
F(r)dr
r0 ,C
is the work done by the force F in moving the particle along path C
from r0 to r1 . The difference in the kinetic energies at t = 0 and t = t1
is therefore equal to the work done by the force in that period.
A Modern Approach to Classical Mechanics Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com
28
Leibniz observed that the quantity mṙ2 is conserved in many mechanical
processes. He called this quantity vis viva (living force) and proposed the prin-
ciple of its conservation in several publications (see e.g. Specimen Dynamicum, Part
I, Acta Eruditorum 1695). Until the beginning of the 20th century one can find books
using this term.
Generally there was a long lasting confusion between the concepts which we call
today energy, force, and momentum.
2.4. CONSTANTS OF MOTION 29
Fdr = (∇ × F) df
C O
V (r) is the potential of the force field F(r). Integrating F along some
path between r0 and r1
r1 r1 r1
Fdr = − ∇V dr = − dV = V (r0 ) − V (r1 ), (2.21)
r0 r0 r0
(since F (x) = −dV (x)/dx). From the conservation law (2.22), one
can directly deduce (see next chapter) the solution of the equation
of motion in the following form:
x
1
t − t0 = ± dx′ .
2 (E − V (x′ )) /m
0
mẍ = F1 (x)
mÿ = F2 (y) (2.25)
mz̈ = F3 (z).
A Modern Approach to Classical Mechanics Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com
E = E1 + E2 + E3 , (2.26)
gives
d
L = N, (2.27)
dt
where we have defined the angular momentum L, to be
L = r × mṙ = r × mv = r × p (2.28)
and the torque or the moment of the force N about the origin, to
be
N = r × F. (2.29)
32 2. FOUNDATIONS OF CLASSICAL MECHANICS
L1 = m (y ż − z ẏ)
L2 = m (z ẋ − xż) (2.30)
L3 = m (xẏ − y ẋ) .
Similar relations hold for the components of the torque N. The equa-
A Modern Approach to Classical Mechanics Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com
Central forces
An important special case occurs when the force produces a torque that
vanishes at every point. That means that at every point, the force is
directed towards (or outwards from) the center about which the torque
is defined; it is parallel (or antiparallel) to the radius vector r. Such a
central force has the form
r
F(r) = f(r) . (2.31)
r
Since F is parallel to r, the torque vanishes,
N = r × F = 0, (2.32)
and the change in momentum of the ejected gases, µ(v − w). The
A Modern Approach to Classical Mechanics Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com
r′ = r + s with d2 s/dt2 = 0,