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Classical Mechanics
1 Lagrange Equation
From the D’ Alembert’s Principle,
X ~(a)
= (Fi − P~i )· δ~ri = 0
i
This equation expresses the equilibrium of both the static and dynamic case.
Now, the position of the ith particle expressed in terms of the generalized
coordinates is
d~
ri X ∂~
ri ∂~
ri
~v = = q˙k +
dt ∂qk ∂t
We may define the virtual displacement δ~
ri as
X ∂~
ri
δ~
ri = δqi
j
∂t
Note that δt is not involve here, because in virtual displacement we held the
time as fixed.
1
In terms of the generalized coordinates, the virtual work of the Fi becomes
X X ∂~
ri
F~i · δ~
ri = F~i · δqj
i i,j
∂qj
What we need is
∂~
ri
mi r~¨i
∂qj
Expanding the momentum component in terms of i for a given j, we have
X ∂~
r i
X d ∂~
r i d ∂~
ri
mi r~¨i · = (mi r~˙i · ) − mi r~˙i · ( )
i
∂q j i
dt ∂q i dt ∂qi
Note that
X ∂~
ri ∂~
ri
v~i = q˙k +
k
∂qk qt
2
Substituting the value of v~i we now have
( )
d ∂~ ri ∂ X ∂~ ri ∂~ri
( )= · q˙k +
dt ∂qj ∂qj k
∂q k ∂t
X ∂ 2 r~i ∂ 2 r~i
= q˙k +
k
∂qj ∂qk ∂t
3
Rewriting the momentum term,
X ∂~
ri X d ∂T ∂T
¨
mi r~i · δqj = − δqj
i,j
∂q j j
dt ∂ q˙j ∂q j
~ i V · ∂~
ri
X
=− ∇
i
∂qj
If we take the dot product of the last term along the direction of i, the result
would be
∂V
=−
∂qj
4
Everything can be written now as
d ∂T ∂T ∂V
− + =0
dt ∂ q˙j ∂qj ∂qj