Introduction and Polar coordinates

COURSE NAME: Mechanics, Oscillations and Waves (MOW)

PHY F111

Instructor: Dr. Indrani Chakraborty

Semester I 2023-24

e-mail: indranic@goa.bits-pilani.ac.in
Why study MOW?

Voyager 2
Started on August 20,
1977
Present status:
Interstellar space, 19.9
billion km from earth

Gravity Assist: Slingshot maneuver

Polar coordinates, angular

momentum, rigid body rotation,
central force, non-inertial frames
Why study MOW?

Voyager 2
Started on August 20,
1977
Present status:
Interstellar space, 19.9
billion km from earth

Radio antenna Deep Space Station (DSS)

43 in Canberra, Australia to communicate
with Voyager 2.

SHM, normal modes, Fourier series,

waves, damped and forced vibrations.
 Before we begin..

•
: drag force on a sphere moving through a liquid
: radius of the sphere
: velocity of the sphere

What is the dimension of the viscosity of the liquid ?

 Before we begin..

• Is this equation correct?

: applied stress
: strain

• Is this equation correct?

: dimensionless
number
density
velocity
 Before we begin..

• Never forget to check that both sides of an equation are

dimensionally consistent!
 Introduction: complex numbers

𝐼𝑚(𝑧 )
where
𝑧 =𝑥+𝑖𝑦
Amplitude :
𝑦
|𝑧|

Argument: 𝜃
where and is in the first quadrant. 0 𝑥 𝑅𝑒(𝑧 )

So,

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 Introduction: complex numbers

𝐼𝑚(𝑧 )
We would show later (in vibrations
and waves) that we can write this as: 𝑧 =𝑥+𝑖𝑦

𝑦
|𝑧|

𝜃
is called a ‘Complex exponential’
0 𝑥 𝑅𝑒(𝑧 )

This extremely handy equation is

known as ‘Euler’s formula’.

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 Introduction: differential equations
How to solve a homogeneous, second order, linear differential equation:

where are constants

• Homogeneous: right hand side is zero.

• Second order: second order derivatives are present.
• Linear: No quadratic or higher order terms.

Examples:
1. SHM equation:
2. Charge decay in a closed LCR circuit:

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 Introduction: differential equations

Let us use a trial solution of the form:

Putting this in the equation above we get,

‘auxiliary equation’

so this has two solutions and

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 Introduction: differential equations

Case 1: , so has real roots.

Therefore one solution may be

Another may be

The principle of superposition for a linear equation says that the sum of the
two solutions is also a solution.
We can write:

We get and using the boundary conditions, for eg, values of and
at .
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 Introduction: differential equations

Case 2: , so has imaginary roots.

So we write

where

Here andare complex constants.

If , we can write using Euler’s formula:

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 Cartesian coordinate systems

and are unit vectors. Their directions are fixed in space.

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Cartesian coordinate systems

We will mostly be using the right

handed coordinate system in this
𝑟 course.

𝜃 Positive is counter-clockwise.

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Cartesian coordinate system

Are and unit vectors good enough to describe a

circular motion or can we make a better choice
of the unit vectors?

For this satellite,

To specify the position of the satellite at any

instant t, we need both and .

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Polar coordinates
But if we choose another coordinate system (a
plane polar coordinate system),

• with one unit vector along the radius (let’s call

it
• and another unit vector along the direction of
change of the angle (let’s call it

We will just need to know the value of one

coordinate to specify the position of the
satellite, as radius is constant.

So,
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 Polar coordinates
But unit vectors and are NOT fixed in space!

This is a major difference with the cartesian system.

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 Polar coordinates
Also while in cartesian, position of each point is unique,

In polar, same point can be represented by multiple values!

In polar, all the 4 coordinate

values below represent the
same point:

In cartesian, (x,y) represents

one unique point.
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Polar coordinates
What about a spirally moving satellite?

In cartesian:

Where is an integer.

In polar:

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Orthogonality
Plane polar coordinate system is an
‘orthogonal coordinate system’, just like
cartesian.

The ‘base vectors’ and are perpendicular to

each other at every point.

So, and

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 Polar coordinates: applications

• Aircraft navigation and Radar

• Robotics
• Motion of planets under gravity
In problems involving some kind of
• Radio antenna
circular/elliptical motion, polar
• Climatology
coordinates make our life easier!
• Representing complex numbers
for a variety of applications