Problem Set-III, PH-201

1. Find out the curve corresponding to the shortest distance between any two points in three dimensional space. 2. Find the curve joining two points, along which a particle falling from rest under the inuence of gravity travels from the higher to the lower pint in the least time. 3. What is the Lagrangian for a simple harmonic osciallator. Write down the Euler-Lagrangian equation. a) Solve for the rst integral show that this is exactly equal to the Hamiltonian of the system. b) Write down the Hamiltonian in terms of Generalized momentum p and generalized coordinate q. Plot the Hamiltonian for dierent value of energy keeping other parameters of the Lagrangian xed. In those plots, can you draw arrows along which systems moves. 4. Write down the Lagrangain for a simple pendulum of mass m with xed lengh L. a) Find the Euler-Lagrange equation of motion. Do the rst integral which that it is in the form of (T+V=Constant) b)Calculate the generalized momentum and express the Hamiltonian in terms of generalized momentum . c)What are the symmetries of the Lagrangian and corresponding conserved quantities. d) Plot the expression for the Hamiltonian in p, q plane for dierent value of energy keeping other paramters xed for various limits of q. 5. Fermats Principle: The light follows the path that minimizes the transit time between two points. Assume a light ray is passing through a mudium of refractive index n(y ) = n0 ey . The dy light starts out at x=y=0 with horizontal initial velocity ( dx |x=0 = 0). Derive the equation of motion of the path and express y in terms of x.
(r ) 6. Two particles of masses (m1 , m2 ) is moving under the mutual force F = f r in three r dimension. Where r is the distance vector between two particles. Write down the Lagrangian of the system in terms of (R, r) coordinates where R is the position of the centre of mass. Find out the symmetries of the Lagrangain and corresponding conserved quantities. Express Hamiltonian of the system in terms of generalized coordinate and momentum.

7. By using variational principle, write down the Euler-Lagrange equation for the following Lagrangian, L = L(q (t, x), q q , , t, x), x t (1)