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21 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
13 votes
1 answer
2k views

The role of the virtual work principle

Lanczos' masterpiece "The Variational Principle of Mechanics" has, on page 76, the following statement: Postulate A (virtual work): The virtual work of the forces of reaction is always zero for any ...
QuantumBrick's user avatar
  • 4,013
4 votes
1 answer
127 views

What does it mean for a force to 'produce' virtual displacement?

Book: Variational Principles of Mechanics by Lanczos, 1st edition, 1949. Statement (page 80): "Two systems of forces which produce the same virtual displacements are dynamically equivalent."...
Mandar's user avatar
  • 41
2 votes
0 answers
746 views

Constraint forces do no virtual work: does this always apply?

The thread title is my main question, but to give some context, I'll include a particular example that made me ask the question in the first place. In Hand and Finch, a small block is on a ...
Striker's user avatar
  • 556
1 vote
1 answer
61 views

Vanishing virtual work done by non-holonomic constraints

I was reading classical mechanics by NC Rana. I was reading a topic on vanishing virtual work done due to constraint forces. How do you prove that the virtual work done by non-holonomic constraint ...
Aaron Nelson's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
76 views

Aren't the virtual work/virtual power principles in mechanics simply solving for the vector differential equation of motion in a preferred direction?

My conceptual understanding of the virtual work/virtual power principles is that, by hypothesizing "virtual displacements"/"virtual velocities", one can solve the equations of ...
jvf's user avatar
  • 245
1 vote
2 answers
106 views

Law of Conservation of Energy ambiguity in Giancoli textbook

In my version of the textbook by Giancoli: Physics for Scientists and Engineers, in chapter 8, there is a formulation of the law of conservation of energy that seems unintuitive and correctable to me. ...
Kjell De Mars's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
119 views

Are principle of virtual work and principle of minimum potential energy same? And how is it related to Calculus of variation?

I am studying Finite element method and Classical Mechanics. I have come across three important terms Principle of virtual work (found in Classical Mechanics) Principle of minimum potential energy (...
Satadru's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
1 answer
40 views

Conceptual question about rotational and translational kinectic energy

My real life problem is to calculate initial translational and angular velocities of a vehicle in a loss of control to a stop (the vehicle will translate and rotate about it's center of mass.) Initial ...
Igor Mello's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
61 views

Unrelated states in virtual work

I'm reading the Wikipedia article on virtual work, and there is the following quote: Consider now the free body diagram of a deformable body, which is composed of an infinite number of differential ...
S. Rotos's user avatar
  • 903
1 vote
1 answer
68 views

Does measured mechanical power and work change between inertial frames?

Imagine a car A is accelerating. Two observers at constant speed, B and C, analyse the change of A's kinetic energy over a same time interval. B sees A going from 10 to 30 m/s C sees A going from ...
user2934303's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
76 views

Conceptual Difficulty About Work

So my issue is best explained with an example. Let us consider a ring of mass $m$ and radius $R$ sliding down an incline of angle $\theta$ ($I = mR^2$). It starts from a height h, and we wish to ...
Matthew Guo's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
138 views

Virtual work of a moving surface on a particle constrained to it

I've only just begun reading through Goldstein's Classical Mechanics. This section is on D'Alembert's Principle and Lagrange's Equations. The following quote is from the beginning of the section. ...
AmagicalFishy's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
1k views

Work done by rolling vs skidding friction force

Two identical bicycles having equal weight riders are traveling along a level road adjacent to each other with the same non-zero velocity. Bike A, (the "skidder"), applies the rear brake strongly ...
ridgerunner's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
46 views

Why is the force being the differential of a potential equivalent to it being a conservative force?

I was reading Goldstein's book on mechanics and came across this theorem: $F(r) = - \nabla V(r)$ is a necessary and sufficient condition of the force field being conservative. So far, I have ...
physBa's user avatar
  • 169
0 votes
1 answer
45 views

Is the definition of work related to the nature of the fundamental interactions?

I am having troubles trying to understand why is work defined as it is. So, I know how work is defined: $W = \vec{F}\cdot{}\vec{d}$ (F is the force, d the displacement) and I am okay with it. This, ...
Due.Berto's user avatar

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