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Physics 5153 Homework #1 Fall 2013: 1 Generalized Coordinates

The document contains two physics homework problems about generalized coordinate systems: 1) The first problem asks about a particle moving in 3D spherical coordinates, including writing the position vector, metric tensor, time derivatives of the moving basis vectors, acceleration, velocity, and nabla operator in spherical coordinates. 2) The second problem considers a 2D elliptic coordinate system, asking to show the coordinate lines, compute the metric tensor, velocity and acceleration vectors, arc length, and period of motion for a particle on an elliptic trajectory with constant velocity.

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William Hammer
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59 views

Physics 5153 Homework #1 Fall 2013: 1 Generalized Coordinates

The document contains two physics homework problems about generalized coordinate systems: 1) The first problem asks about a particle moving in 3D spherical coordinates, including writing the position vector, metric tensor, time derivatives of the moving basis vectors, acceleration, velocity, and nabla operator in spherical coordinates. 2) The second problem considers a 2D elliptic coordinate system, asking to show the coordinate lines, compute the metric tensor, velocity and acceleration vectors, arc length, and period of motion for a particle on an elliptic trajectory with constant velocity.

Uploaded by

William Hammer
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Physics 5153 Homework #1 Fall 2013

Instructor Bruno Uchoa Due date: August 28, 2013 August 22, 2013

Generalized Coordinates

1. Consider a particle moving in 3D space. Assume a xed reference frame dened by an Cartesian basis. i, j, k a) Write down the vector that describes the position of the particle in spherical coordinates. b) Write down the metric tensor in spherical coordinates and compute the corresponding moving basis e1 , e2 , e3 . c) Compute the time derivatives dei dt for i = 1, 2, 3 in terms of spherical coordinates and write down your response in the moving basis e1 , e2 , e3 . d) Using your results in the previous item, compute the acceleration in spherical coordinates by an explicit calculation of the derivative a d i (q ei ) . dt

Write down your result in terms of ei vectors. e) Using the metric tensor, compute the square of the velocity of the particle. Compute the acceleration of the particle and verify your previous result (use either the denition of the acceleration in Riemann-Christoel symbols or the Lagrangian method). f) The nabla operator in generalized coordinates is ei i = ei gij j = ei gij . q j

Compute in spherical coordinates in the moving basis ei .

Elliptic coordinates

Consider a system of elliptic coordinates in two dimensions (, ), x = a cosh cos y = a sinh sin , where 0 is a real number, [0, 2 ] and a is a positive constant. 1

a) Show that for xed , this coordinate system describes ellipses, while for xed it describes hyperbolas. b) Compute the metric tensor in elliptic coordinates and write down the corresponding moving basis (e1 and e2 ). c) Compute the velocity and acceleration vectors of a point particle moving in a plane in elliptic coordinates. d) Write down the arc length in elliptical coordinates. Assume now that the particle describes an elliptic trajectory centered at the origin, with = 0 xed, and with constant velocity v = v0 . Calculate the period of the motion (you dont have to compute the integral).

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