CLASSICAL MECHANICS TFY4345 - Solution Exercise Set 3

(1a) This problem is treated in detail in the compendium. The quantity inside the brackets then has to be a constant C.
We find thus:
(1b) Choose the reference level for potential energy (V = 0)
at x = 0. In that case, we have v2 = v20 + 2gx due to energy
C2 (v20 + 2gx)
conservation. The condition for the Brachistochrone-curve is (y0 )2 = (3)
as before that 1 −C2 (v20 + 2gx)
Z p
1 + (y0 )2
Z
ds/v = q dx (1) The initial condition is that y0 (0) = 1, which allows us to de-
v20 + 2gx termine C namely C2 = 1/(2v20 ). Inserting this into the ex-
pression for (y0 )2 , we find that:
should have its minimum value. The Euler-Lagrange equa-
tions then give us ∂ f /∂y = 0 where f is the integrand such
that: h0 + x
(y0 )2 = (4)
h0 − x
dh y0 i
q = 0. (2)
dx p
v20 + 2gx 1 + (y0 )2
with h0 = v20 /(2g).