MECHANICS OSCILLATION &

WAVES (PHY F111)

Lecture no 1:
Plane Polar coordinates
Ist SEMESTER 2018-19
BITS PILANI K K BIRLA GOA CAMPUS

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 Plane Polar coordinates
CHAPTER 1 (Section 1.9, KK)
PLAN:

PLANE POLAR COORDINATES (PPC)

NEWTONS LAWS IN PPC

Depending on the dynamics of a body,

appropriate choice of coordinate system
simplifies the problem and presents a good
physical interpretation too.
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 Cartesian coordinates
Y (𝒋)Ƹ

෡
𝒊Ƹ Χ 𝒋Ƹ = 𝒌 X (𝒊)Ƹ

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 Motion in a straight line
If `x’ be the coordinate (position) of an object
(particle) moving in a line

And one can generalize this for many dimensions.

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Uniform Circular motion

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 What does this mean?

Centripetal acceleration !!

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 The motion attributes:
• r is a constant.
• r.v = a.v = 0

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Circular motion is important and has variety of
application. We need a more convenient
coordinate system.

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Plane Polar coordinates (r, θ)

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Lines of constant θ are radially outward.
Lines of constant r are concentric circles.
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Are Orthogonal

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The Position

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The velocity
RADIAL TANGENTIAL
 The acceleration

Change in
Centripetal tangential
Acceleration speed

Coriolis
Acceleration due to
Acceleration
change in radial speed
The Position

The velocity

The acceleration
 Suggested Problems
• Apply polar coordinate to newton's laws and
interprete the attributes such as position,
velocity & acceleration.

• Pb 1.13 – 1.21
• Example 1.14, 1.16, 1,17
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