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12 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
2 votes
1 answer
62 views

Implications of Galilei-Invariance on a time-independent potential

I'm trying to compute a result shown in my classical mechanics lecture on my own. Namely, consider that a system composed of $n$ particles follows a law of force $m_k\ddot{\vec{x_k}} = \vec{F_k}(\vec{...
Tomas Noguera's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
397 views

Potential energy with constraints moving body

I know that for conservative forces $\vec{F}=-\nabla{U}$. Let's consider the case of gravitational potential energy, I know that $U=mgy$. Just to check: $\vec{F}=-\nabla{U}=(0,-mg)$: perfect! Now, let'...
Surfer on the fall's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
100 views

Why must a constraint force be normal?

If we impose that a particle follows a holonomic constraint, so that it always remains on a surface defined by some function $f(x_1,x_2,x_3)=0$ with $f:\mathbb{R^3}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$, we get a ...
16π Cent's user avatar
  • 101
1 vote
1 answer
93 views

How to define differentiation of a time-dependent vectors with respect to a specific reference frame in a coordinate-free manner?

It is usual in classical mechanics to introduce the derivative of a time-dependent vector with respect to a reference frame. This is accomplished through the use of a basis that is fixed with respect ...
jvf's user avatar
  • 245
1 vote
1 answer
143 views

Question regarding Energy Interaction of two particles

https://i.sstatic.net/LUsKX.jpg To give a context as to what I'm asking here ,I am talking about the energy of a two particle system (section 4.9 Taylor's Classical Mechanics) . My question is what ...
Harry Case's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
50 views

Functional derivative of a symmetrized field

I'm confused whether a symmetrisation/antisymmetrization of a function with respect to its arguments, i.e., $$F(x_1,x_2,...,x_n)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{N!}}\sum_{\pi}\textrm{sgn}(\pi)~f(x_{\pi(1)},...,x_{\pi(...
Hamurabi's user avatar
  • 1,323
1 vote
1 answer
621 views

Determining the change in radius of water flowing from a faucet - more general question on differentiation

I've been outside of the academic world for several years now, and I'm forcing myself to go back through old textbooks and resources and work through the information in there. I can tell I'm losing ...
Ricky Barz's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
76 views

In Lagrangian mechanics, do we need to filter out impossible solutions after solving?

The principle behind Lagrangian mechanics is that the true path is one that makes the action stationary. Of course, there are many absurd paths that are not physically realizable as paths. For ...
Cort Ammon's user avatar
  • 50.2k
0 votes
0 answers
82 views

Cartesian coordinate velocity and generalized coordinate velocity

use $x_k$ to denote the kth component of cartesian coordinate, and $q_k$ to denote the generalized coordinate. Taking the derivate of $x_k(q_1,q_2,q_3,t)$ w.r.t. time, we have $$\frac{d x_k(q_1,q_2,...
sunxd's user avatar
  • 103
0 votes
1 answer
33 views

Suppose for all value of $r$ expression for Effective Potential Energy $U_{eff}$ is zero, does that mean $F(r)$ is zero?

Suppose for all value of $\textbf{r}$ expression for Effective Potential Energy ($U_{eff}$) is zero, does that mean $F(\textbf{r})$ is zero?
user288009's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
55 views

Math question about point transformations

I am trying to prove the classic problem to showcase Lagrangian's scalar invariant property. Namely, that if you have $x_i = \{ x_1, ...., x_n; t \}$ , you can then represent $L(x_1,....,\dot{x_1},.....
Enrique Segura's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
345 views

Different subscripts for $\nabla$ operators while deriving force on system of many particles

Consider a system of 4 particles in an external conservative field. So force acting on each particle is derived from potential energy $U(x,y,z)$of the particle+field system: Total (external) force on ...
atom's user avatar
  • 1,034