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 :
|𝑧 |
𝑦

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

|𝑧 |
𝑦

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.

13
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,

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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
Relating plane polar with cartesian
Since and both depend on
^ sin 𝜃 ^𝑗
^ ( 𝜃 )= cos 𝜃 𝑖+
𝑟

^ ^ cos 𝜃 ^𝑗
𝜃 ( 𝜃 )=−sin 𝜃 𝑖+
Relating plane polar with cartesian
Writing in matrix notation,

Similarly,
 Time derivatives of the polar unit vectors

We write first derivatives with one dot on

top and second derivative with two dots on
top. For eg: as and as .
Time derivatives of the polar unit vectors

Since,
 Geometric derivation
and are unit vectors, so only way they can change
is by changing their direction, that is, by rotating.
at time and at time . Both have magnitude
^
∆ 𝜃=− ∆ 𝜃 𝑟^
^
𝜃1
^
∆ 𝑟^ =∆ 𝜃 𝜃
^
𝜃 ∆
2
𝜃
∆ 𝜃 Taking the limit ,
 Geometric derivation

at time and at time . Both have magnitude

^
∆ 𝜃=− ∆ 𝜃 𝑟^
^
𝜃1
^
∆ 𝑟^ =∆ 𝜃 𝜃
^
𝜃 ∆
2
𝜃 Taking the limit ,
∆ 𝜃
 Velocity in plane polar coordinates

𝜃 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡

𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡
Acceleration in plane polar coordinates

Acceleration due Centripetal Acceleration due to Coriolis acceleration

to change in radial acceleration change in tangential
speed speed

Radial acceleration Tangential acceleration

 Acceleration of a bead on a spoke
A bead moves outward with constant speed along the spoke of a
wheel. It starts from the center at . The angular position of the spoke is
given by , where is a constant. Find the velocity and acceleration.
 Acceleration of a bead on a spoke

An ‘Archimidean spiral’

Here radial velocity and tangential

acceleration are constant.
 Equation of motion
Equation of motion of a free particle:

The differential equation representing Newton’s second law will be

referred to as the ‘equation of motion’ not the final expression involving ,
and after integration.

If we have only a radial force (say gravity) present, what can you say?
 Radial motion without acceleration
A particle moves with and where and are constants.

If , radial part of the acceleration vanishes.

Although radial velocity increases exponentially with time!

This is because radial acceleration is composed on not one, but two terms:
and , and one can cancel another.
 Polar coordinates in 3D
In 3D we can use,

This will be called a ‘Cylindrical coordinate system’.

Or we can use a ‘Spherical

coordinate system’ with and
two angles and , but we will
not discuss that here.
 Area and volume elements in polar

For an infinitesimal element,

Length element in 3D:

in cartesian, in cylindrical polar

Area element in 2D:

in cartesian, in plane polar
 Area and volume elements in polar

Volume element:
in cartesian, in cylindrical polar
 Problem 1

b
Problem 2
Problem 3
Problem 4
 Doing approximations
A function can be expressed as a power series in as:

Where , etc. are constants and

If is a ‘well behaved’ that is a differentiable function, we can write:

and
and
and
If we differentiate k times,
 Doing approximations
So I can finally express as:

This is called the TAYLOR SERIES.

If instead of we expand it about some other origin , then

This is called the MACLAURIN SERIES.

If is small, we will be able to retain only the first few terms of the Taylor series
expansion in a given problem.
Check that you can derive sine series, cosine series and the binomial expansion
using the Taylor series expansion!
 Extras: Polar plots
Instead of using a x,y plot, we can also use a r, θ plot.

Cartesian

Polar

sin⁡(𝑡h𝑒𝑡𝑎) sin ⁡(2 ∗ 𝑡h𝑒𝑡𝑎) cos⁡(𝑡h𝑒𝑡𝑎) c os ⁡(2 ∗ 𝑡h𝑒𝑡𝑎)

 Extras: Polar plots

Cartesian

Polar

sin ( 2 ∗ 𝑡h𝑒𝑡𝑎 ) ∗ cos ⁡(2∗ 𝑡h𝑒𝑡𝑎) sin ( 2 ∗ 𝑡h𝑒𝑡𝑎 ) + sin ⁡( 𝑡h𝑒𝑡𝑎)

Extras: Spherical polar coordinates in 3D
Three unit vectors: and

For an infinitesimal volume

element, we will have