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PHYS331 Lesson 1
PHYS331 Lesson 1
I.
A.
Position Vector
Definition:
Consider an object (a baseball for instance) which is located at some
arbitrary point in space (point P). We need to develop a way of
describing the location of the ball in terms of mathematics. The
method that physicists have developed is called the position vector!!
The position vector for an object is the vector drawn from the origin
of a coordinate system to the location of the object.
B.
You might be inclined to remark that all of this is trivial and even that
it is a waist of time. All of this material should be review from your
introductory physics course. I encourage you to reject such quick
judgments and to reflect deeply upon each concept that we study in
this course. The reason that I have chosen to include this material is to
remind you of some very important physics and to highlight the
course goals. First, you should remember from your introductory
physics course that many other physics quantities are derived from the
position vector including displacement, velocity, acceleration, linear
momentum, angular momentum, etc. Thus, the question of reference
frames and transformation equations is extremely important in
physics. Secondly, a major reason for the course is not to solve
problems involving balls rolling down inclined planes, but to develop
an understanding of the way in which physical systems can be
represented in mathematics. By learning to apply mathematics to
mechanical systems where you have some physical intuition, you
build the skills needed for more advanced physics courses (Relativity,
Quantum Electrodynamics, etc) where intuition based upon everyday
experience will be of little help.
II.
Velocity Vector
A.
Definition:
The velocity of an object with respect to a coordinate system is
defined as the time rate of change of the objects position vector in
that coordinate system.
dr
v
dt
B.
III.
Acceleration Vector
A.
Definition:
The acceleration of an object with respect to a coordinate system is
defined as the time rate of change of the objects velocity vector in
that coordinate system.
dv
a
dt
B.
IV.
P (x,y,z)
z
x
y
A.
Position Vector
We have already discussed that a position vector can be written
mathematically in more than one way. In this case, we choose
the
writethe position vector as the sum of three other vectors ( X , Y ,
and Z ) as shown below.
r XY Z
direction of these three vectors ( X , Y , and Z ), we define three unit
vectors (one for each of our coordinates). These unit vector are
Xx
i
Y y j
Zz k
r x
i y j z k
Again, you should have already seen this result in your introductory
physics course. Did you understand the process by which it came
about or did you just memorize it? Often in introductory physics
classes, we can take advantage of our students every day experiences
to teach certain physics principles. Your instructor may have discussed
using a combination of North/South and East/West to drive between
your house and the grocery store. Because the Earth is relatively flat
based upon your everyday experience, most students have an intuitive
feel for Cartesian Coordinates. However, we will be working with
other coordinate systems so you need to understand actual
mathematical process.
B.
Velocity Vector
We now use the definition of velocity to develop the relationship for
Cartesian coordinates.
dr d
)
v
( x i y j z k
dt dt
d
d
d
)
v
( x i )
( y j )
(zk
dt
dt
dt
d
d
d
d
d
z d ( k)
v
( x ) i x ( i ) ( y ) j y ( j ) ( z ) k
dt
dt
dt
dt
dt
dt
v
( x ) i
( y ) j
(z) k
dt
dt
dt
i y
j z
k
v x
There are several important things that you should take away from
this exercise. First, one of the advantages of working with Cartesian
coordinates is that the unit vectors dont enter into the Calculus. In
other coordinate systems, you will have to take derivatives of unit
vectors!! Secondly, the result shows that the velocity component in
each direction depends only on the time rate of change of that
coordinate!! Therefore, motion along one axis is independent of
motion along either of the other axis. This is why a ball thrown
horizontally will hit the Earth at the same time as a ball dropped from
the same height provided we neglect the minute curvature of the
Earth. It is also why we were able to break rectilinear motion
problems into parts in your introductory physics course.
C.
Acceleration Vector
dv d
)
i y
j z k
a
(x
dt dt
d
d
d
)
i )
j )
k
a
(x
(y
(z
dt
dt
dt
d
d
d
d
d
d
) i x
) j y
a
(x
(i) ( y
(j)
( z ) k z
( k)
dt
dt
dt
dt
dt
dt
Again, we use the fact that the derivative of our three unit vectors ( i ,
) are zero!!!
j , and k
d
d
d
) i
) j
a
(x
(y
( z ) k
dt
dt
dt
a x i y j z k
V.
P (,,z)
z
x
In the drawing, point P is on the surface of an imaginary cylinder of
radius , height h, and with the projection of its position vector onto
the x-y plane at an angle from the x-axis. You also used this
coordinate system in introductory physics to handle rotation problems.
However, you probably just memorized the results of the math like the
formula for centripetal acceleration instead of actually performing the
math operations!!
A.
Unit Vectors
Following the procedure for our past work, we are going to define a
unit vector for each of the three coordinates. The first unit vector is
found by only allowing to vary while keeping and z constant. This
amounts to moving along the radius of the cylinder in the direction of
an increasing radius. The second unit vector is found by only allowing
to vary while keeping and z constant. This amounts to walking
counter clockwise around a circle. The third unit vector is found by
only allowing z to vary while keeping and constant. This amounts
to walking in the +z direction.
P (,,z)
Using our knowledge of the dot product and components, we see that
Cos( ) i Sin( ) j
Sin( ) i Cos( ) j
B.
Position Vector
In cylindrical coordinates, we can write the position vector in as the
sum of only two vectors:
r Z
P (,,z)
Zz k
x
Thus, we have the position vector in cylindrical coordinates as
zk
r
C.
Velocity Vector
We now use the definition of velocity to develop the relationship for
cylindrical coordinates.
dr d
)
zk
v
(
dt dt
d
d
)
)
v
(
(zk
dt
dt
d
d
d
d
(
)
v
()
( z ) k z ( k
)
dt
dt
dt
dt
and ) are not constant since their direction
The unit vectors (
depends on the location of point P. Therefore, we will have to take
their derivatives!! We do this by replacing each unit vector with its
representation in Cartesian coordinates and then do the Calculus.
, we have
Starting with
d
d
)
(
[ Cos( ) i Sin ( ) j ]
dt
dt
d
d
d
)
(
[ Cos( )] i
[ Sin ( ) ] j
dt
dt
dt
d
d
d
( ) Sin( ) [ ] i Cos ( ) [ ] j
dt
dt
dt
d
d
( ) [Sin( ) i Cos ( ) j ]
[ ]
dt
dt
d
)
(
dt
The time rate of change of the angular position was called the
angular velocity, , for rotation problems in your introductory physics
course!!
We now calculate the time derivative of by the same procedure.
d
d
( )
[ - Sin( ) i Cos ( ) j ]
dt
dt
d
d
d
( ) [ Sin( )] i
[ Cos ( ) ] j
dt
dt
dt
d
d
d
( ) Cos( ) [ ] i Sin ( ) [ ] j
dt
dt
dt
d
d
( ) [Cos( ) i Sin ( ) j ]
[ ]
dt
dt
d
( )
dt
A graph of the unit vectors and their derivatives may help you
visualize the results. It also reminds you that the derivative of a vector
produces a vector tangent to the original vector!! The length of the
derivative vectors depend on the angular velocity. If there is no
rotation then the motion is in a plane and the derivatives of the unit
vectors are zero!! If the angular velocity is high then the magnitudes
of the derivatives of the unit vectors will be large and these terms will
dominate the velocity results.
y
d
dt
d
dt
v
( ) ( z ) k
dt
dt
z
k
k
v
Let us now consider our results. The first term is the radial velocity
component. The last term is the velocity component in the z-direction.
If we consider the special case of a particle traveling in a circle in the
x-y plane then both the first and third terms in the velocity
relationship are zero. Thus, an object moving in a circular path as in
your introductory physics course would have a velocity with a
component only in the direction with a magnitude of . This is
just the tangential velocity from your introductory physics course!!
In other words, we have
v
v v radial
v z k
tangential
D.
Acceleration Vector
We now use the definition of acceleration to develop the relationship
for cylindrical coordinates.
dv d
a
( z k )
dt dt
d
d
d
)
)
k
a
(
( )
(z
dt
dt
dt
d
d
d
d
d
d
z d ( k
)
)
a
(
( )
() ( )
( )
(z )k
dt
dt
dt
dt
dt
dt
dt
Using our relationships for the time derivatives of the unit vectors, we
have
) z k
(-
a
(2
) z k
a ( - 2 )
The z-component of the acceleration is just due to the change in the zcomponent of the objects velocity as in the Cartesian coordinate
system. However, we see that there are two terms contributing to the
acceleration in both the radial and angular directions. The first term in
the radial direction occurs if the radial velocity of the object is
changing. The first term in the angular acceleration occurs if the
object has both angular and radial velocity.
To understand the two remaining terms, we again consider an object
moving in a circle in the x-y plane. In this case, and z are constant
z 0 . Thus, the acceleration becomes
so
- 2
a - 2
The radial term is the centripetal acceleration and the angular term is
the tangential acceleration of the object from introductory physics
is the angular acceleration.
class where
VI.
A.
i A A ( i i ) A ( i j ) A (i k
)
x
y
z
i A A (1 ) A ( 0 ) A (0)
x
y
z
i A A
x
j A A
y
k A A z
)
A A (
) A (
) A z (
k
A A (1) A ( 0) A z (0)
A A
A A
The key thing is not to remember these results, but to understand the
process so that you are able to work with any orthogonal coordinate
system that you might encounter!!
B. Let us now use the material in the previous section to develop
relationships for transforming a vectors representation in one
A
A
)
( A x i A y j A z k
A
)
i ) A y (
j ) A z (
k
A A x (
A A
)
A ( A x i A y j A z k
)
A A x ( i ) A y ( j ) A z ( k
A z k A
( A i A j A k
Az k
x
y
z )
i ) A (k
j ) A (k
k
)
A z A x (k
y
z
I could simplify these expressions, but I have left them in their most
general form so that I can rewrite them in terms of matrices.
A i
i
A z k
j
k
Ax
k
A
y
k A z
k
Our result indicates that we can translate between any two orthogonal
coordinate systems by multiplying our vector by a transformation
matrix whose elements are the scalar product of the unit vectors in
these two coordinate systems!!! This process is well suited for
computer analysis since computers are extremely efficient at handling
matrices (called arrays in CS jargon). In fact, this is the way that
rotations and other motion calculations are often handled in video
games!!!
1)
2)
3)
4)
Summary:
Find the scalar products between each of the unit vectors
Write the transformation matrix whose elements were found in
step 1.
Write your original vector as a column matrix whose elements
are the components of the vector in the original coordinate
system
Multiply the transformation matrix by the original vectors
column matrix to produce a new column matrix whose elements
are the components of the vector in the new coordinate system.
j Sin( )
0
k
i Sin( )
j Cos( )
k 0
i 0
k
j 0
k
k
1
k
Cos( )
Sin( ) 0
T Sin( ) Cos( ) 0
0
0
1
I have left spherical coordinates for you to work out. Some of the
question that you might consider if you think that you understand this
material are:
1. What is the determinant of the transformation matrix? What is the
physical significance of this value?
2. What is the transformation matrix for converting from cylindrical
to spherical coordinates?
3. What is the transformation matrix for converting from Cartesian
to spherical coordinates?
4. How do you write the position vector
for a particle in spherical coordinates?
5. What is the time-derivative of the unit vectors in spherical
coordinates?
6. How do you write the velocity, and acceleration vectors
for a particle in spherical coordinates?
7. The
scalar product of two vector in Cartesian coordinates is
A B A x B x A y B y A z B z . What are the formulas for the scalar
product in cylindrical and spherical coordinates?