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Classical Dynamics: Example Sheet 3

1. The principal moments of inertia are real and non-negative. The parallel axis theorem relates the inertia tensor about a point P displaced from the center of mass to the inertia tensor about the center of mass. 2. The angular velocity ω can be expressed in terms of Euler angles in the body frame or space frame. 3. Feynman observed a plate wobbling in a cafeteria and deduced that the medallion on the plate rotated twice as fast as the wobble, leading him to develop equations for wobbling and eventually quantum electrodynamics.

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153 views3 pages

Classical Dynamics: Example Sheet 3

1. The principal moments of inertia are real and non-negative. The parallel axis theorem relates the inertia tensor about a point P displaced from the center of mass to the inertia tensor about the center of mass. 2. The angular velocity ω can be expressed in terms of Euler angles in the body frame or space frame. 3. Feynman observed a plate wobbling in a cafeteria and deduced that the medallion on the plate rotated twice as fast as the wobble, leading him to develop equations for wobbling and eventually quantum electrodynamics.

Uploaded by

Shweta Sridhar
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Classical Dynamics: Example Sheet 3

Michaelmas 2012 Comments welcome: please send them to Berry Groisman (bg268@) 1. Tensor of Inertia a. Prove that the principal moments of inertia, Ia , are real and non-negative. b. During the lectures we have outlined the proof of the Parallel Axis Theorem, which is a statement that the inertia tensor about a point P , which is displaced by c from the centre of mass is related to the inertia tensor about the centre of mass as (IP )ab = (ICoM )ab + M (c2 ab ca cb ), (1)

where M is the total mass of the body. Complete the proof of the theorem. Hint: it will be helpful to choose the origin in the centre of mass. 2. Show that the eect of three rotations by Euler angles results in the relationship b between the body frame axes {ea } and the space frame axes {e } where the ea = Rab e orthogonal matrix R is cos cos cos sin sin sin cos + cos sin cos sin sin R = cos sin cos cos sin sin sin + cos cos cos sin cos sin sin sin cos cos Use this to conrm that the angular velocity can be expressed in terms of Euler angles as sin sin + cos ]e1 + [ sin cos sin ]e2 + [ + cos ]e3 = [ in the body frame {ea }. Or, alternatively, as sin sin + cos ] sin cos + sin ] + cos ] = [ e1 + [ e2 + [ e3 a }. in the space frame {e 3. The physicist Richard Feynman tells the following story: I was in the cafeteria and some guy, fooling around, throws a plate in the air. As the plate went up in the air I saw it wobble, and I noticed the red medallion of Cornell on the plate going around. It was pretty obvious to me that the medallion went around faster than the wobbling. 1 (3) (2)

I had nothing to do, so I start guring out the motion of the rotating plate. I discover that when the angle is very slight, the medallion rotates twice as fast as the wobble rate two to one. It came out of a complicated equation! I went on to work out equations for wobbles. Then I thought about how the electron orbits start to move in relativity. Then theres the Dirac equation in electrodynamics. And then quantum electrodynamics. And before I knew it....the whole business that I got the Nobel prize for came from that piddling around with the wobbling plate. Feynman was right about quantum electrodynamics. But what about the plate? 4. Consider a heavy symmetric top of mass M , pinned at point P which is a distance

Figure 1: The Euler angles for the heavy symmetric top l from the centre of mass. The principal moments of inertia about P are I1 , I1 and I3 and the Euler angles are shown in the gure. The top is spun with initial conditions = 0 and = 0 . Show that obeys the equation of motion, = Ve () I1 where Ve () =
2 2 I3 3 (cos cos 0 )2 + M gl cos 2I1 sin2

(4)

(5)

Suppose that the top is spinning very fast so that I3 3 M glI1 (6)

Show that 0 is close to the minimum of Ve (). Use this fact to deduce that the top nutates with frequency and draw the subsequent motion. 5. Throw a book in the air. If the principal moments of inertia are I1 > I2 > I3 , convince yourself that the book can rotate in a stable manner about the principal axes e1 and e3 , but not about e2 . 2 3 I3 I1 (7)

Use Eulers equations to show that the energy E and the total angular momentum L are conserved. Suppose that the initial conditions are such that
2

L2 = 2I2 E

(8)

with the initial angular velocity perpendicular to the intermediate principal axes e2 . Show that will ultimately end up parallel to e2 and derive the characteristic time taken to reach this steady state. 6. A rigid lamina (i.e. a two dimensional object) has principal moments of inertia about the centre of mass given by, I1 = (2 1) I2 = (2 + 1) , I3 = 22 (9)

Write down Eulers equations for the lamina moving freely in space. Show that the 2 2 + 2 ) is constant component of the angular velocity in the plane of the lamina (i.e. 1 in time. Choose the initial angular velocity to be = N e1 + N e3 . Dene tan = 2 /1 , which is the angle the component of in the plane of the lamina makes with e1 . Show that it satises + N 2 cos sin = 0 and deduce that at time t, = [N sech N t]e1 + [N tanh N t]e2 + [N sech N t]e3 (11) (10)

7. The Lagrangian for the heavy symmetric top is


1 + cos )2 M gl cos 2 + 2 sin2 + 1 I3 ( L= 2 I1 2

(12)

Obtain the momenta p , p and p and the Hamiltonian H (, , , p , p , p ). Derive Hamiltons equations. 8. A system with two degrees of freedom x and y has the Lagrangian, L = xy + yx 2 + x y (13)

Derive Lagranges equations. Obtain the Hamiltonian H (x, y, px , py ). Derive Hamiltons equations and show that they are equivalent to Lagranges equations. 3

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