Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lagrangian Mechanics PDF
Lagrangian Mechanics PDF
Brizard
Saint Michael's College
Lagrangian Mechanics
where the action integral is a functional of the vector function q(t), which provides a path
from the initial point q i = q(ti) to the nal point qf = q(tf ). The variational principle
Z tf " !#
d @L d @L
j
0 = A[q] = A[q + q] = q dt;
d ti @ qj dt @ q_j
=0
1
which is simply the kinetic energy of the particle minus its potential energy. For a time-
independent Lagrangian (@L=@t = 0), we also nd that the energy function
@L m 2
r_ L = j_rj + U (r) = E;
@ r_ 2
is a constant of the motion. Hence, for a simple mechanical system, the Lagrangian function
is obtained by computing the kinetic energy of the system and its potential energy and then
construct Eq. (4).
2 Examples
The construction of a Lagrangian function for a system of N particles proceeds in three
steps as follows.
Step I. Dene k generalized coordinates fq1 (t); :::; q k(t)g that represent the instanta-
neous conguration of the system of N particles.
Step II. Construct the position vector ra (q; t) and its associated velocity
Xk
@r a @ra
va (q; q;
_ t) = + q_j
@t j=1 @q j
and the potential energy U (q; t) for the system and combine them to obtain the Lagrangian
2
Although the motion of the pendulum is two-dimensional, a single generalized coordi-
nate is needed to describe the conguration of the pendulum: the angle measured from
the negative y-axis (see Figure above). Here, the position of the object is given as
x(;
_ ) _ = ` _ cos and y(;
_ ) _ = ` _ sin :
3
2.2 Example II: Bead on a Rotating Hoop
Consider a bead of mass m sliding freely on a hoop of radius R rotating with angular
velocity !0 in a constant gravitational eld with acceleration g.
Here, since the bead of the rotating hoop moves on the surface of a sphere of radius R,
we use the generalized coordinates given by the two angles (measured from the negative
z-axis) and ' (measured from the positive x-axis), where '_ = !0 . The position of the bead
is given as
z(;
_ ; _ t) = R _ sin ;
4
and the Euler-Lagrange equation for is
!
@L 2 _ d @L
= mR ! = mR2
@ _ dt _
@
@L
= mgR sin
@
+ mR2 !02 cos sin
or
g 2
+ sin !0 cos = 0
R
Consider a pendulum of mass m and length b attached to the edge of a disk of radius a
rotating at angular velocity ! in a constant gravitational eld with acceleration g.
Placing the origin at the center of the disk, the coordinates of the pendulum mass are
x = a sin !t + b cos
y = a cos !t + b sin
so that the velocity components are
x_ = a! cos !t b _ sin
y_ = a! sin !t + b _ cos
and the squared velocity is
v2 = a2!2 + b2 _2 + 2 ab ! _ sin( !t):
Setting the zero potential energy at x = 0, the gravitational potential energy is
U = mg x = mga sin !t mgb cos :
5
The Lagrangian L = K U is, therefore, written as
h i
_ t) = m a 2!2 + b2_ 2 + 2 ab ! _ sin( !t)
L(; ;
2
mga sin !t + mgb cos ; (5)
@L
= mb2 _ + m ab ! sin( !t) !
@ _ !
d @L
= mb2 + m ab ! (_ !) cos( !t)
dt @ _
and
@L
= m ab ! _ cos( !t) mg b sin
@
or g a
+ sin !2 cos( !t) = 0
b b
We recover the standard equation of motion for the pendulum when a or ! vanish.
Note that the terms [(m=2) a 2!2] and [ mga sin !t] in the Lagrangian (5) play no role
in determining the dynamics of the system. In fact, as can easily be shown, a Lagrangian L
is always dened up to an exact time derivative, i.e., the Lagrangians L and L0 = L+ df=dt,
where f (q; t) is an arbitrary function, lead to the same Euler-Lagrange equations. In the
present case,
f (t) = [(m=2) a2! 2] t + (mga=!) cos !t
and thus this term can be omitted from the Lagrangian (5) without changing the equations
of motion.
Consider a compound Atwood machine composed three masses (labeled m1 , m2, and m3 )
attached by two massless ropes through two massless pulleys in a constant gravitational
eld with acceleration g. The two generalized coordinates for this system (see Figure) are
the distance x of mass m1 from the top of the rst pulley and the distance y of mass m2
from the top of the second pulley; here, the lengths `a and `b are constants.
6
The coordinates and velocities of the three masses m1 , m2, and m3 are
x1 = x ! v1 = x;
_
x2 = `a x + y ! v2 = y_ x;
_
x3 = `a x + `b y ! v3 = x_ y;
_
where constant terms were omitted. The Lagrangian L = K U is, therefore, written as
m1 2 m2 m3
L(x; x;
_ y; y)
_ = x_ + _ 2 +
( x_ y) _ 2
(x_ + y)
2 2 2
+ g x (m1 m2 m3 ) + g y (m2 m3) :
7
while the Euler-Lagrange equation for y is
@L
= (m3 m2) x_ + (m2 + m3) y_ !
@ y_
!
d @L
= (m3 m2 ) x + (m2 + m3 ) y
dt @ y_
@L
= g (m2 m3)
@y
or
dq @L
E = L
dt @ q_
denes the energy invariant. When the Lagrangian is invariant under spatial translations
or rotations, ! + , the Noether theorem states that the component
@L @q @L
p = =
@ _ @ @ q_