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    Particle On A Helix

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    RUDRA KHANRA
    This document presents the solution to finding the constraint force and equations of motion for a particle sliding down a frictionless helical wire under gravity using Lagrange multipliers. The key steps are: 1) Express the constraint as a function equal to zero. Derive equations of motion containing accelerations. 2) Eliminate terms to obtain an expression relating the constraint force components to the Lagrange multiplier. 3) Solve for the Lagrange multiplier in terms of system parameters and substitute back into the equations of motion, obtaining an explicit solution for the acceleration and constraint force.

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    Particle On A Helix

    Uploaded by

    RUDRA KHANRA
    22 views2 pages
    This document presents the solution to finding the constraint force and equations of motion for a particle sliding down a frictionless helical wire under gravity using Lagrange multipliers. The key steps are: 1) Express the constraint as a function equal to zero. Derive equations of motion containing accelerations. 2) Eliminate terms to obtain an expression relating the constraint force components to the Lagrange multiplier. 3) Solve for the Lagrange multiplier in terms of system parameters and substitute back into the equations of motion, obtaining an explicit solution for the acceleration and constraint force.

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    This document presents the solution to finding the constraint force and equations of motion for a particle sliding down a frictionless helical wire under gravity using Lagrange multipliers. The key steps are: 1) Express the constraint as a function equal to zero. Derive equations of motion containing accelerations. 2) Eliminate terms to obtain an expression relating the constraint force components to the Lagrange multiplier. 3) Solve for the Lagrange multiplier in terms of system parameters and substitute back into the equations of motion, obtaining an explicit solution for the acceleration and constraint force.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    22 views2 pages

    Particle On A Helix

    Uploaded by

    RUDRA KHANRA
    This document presents the solution to finding the constraint force and equations of motion for a particle sliding down a frictionless helical wire under gravity using Lagrange multipliers. The key steps are: 1) Express the constraint as a function equal to zero. Derive equations of motion containing accelerations. 2) Eliminate terms to obtain an expression relating the constraint force components to the Lagrange multiplier. 3) Solve for the Lagrange multiplier in terms of system parameters and substitute back into the equations of motion, obtaining an explicit solution for the acceleration and constraint force.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 2

    PARTICLE ON A HELIX BY THE METHOD OF LAGRANGE MULTIPLIERS

    Problem (Rana and Joag, Prob. 1.8): A bead of mass m is constrained to slide down a frictionless right

    circular helical wire under the influence of gravity. Assume the axis of the helix to be vertical (z-axis),

    a the radius of the helix, 2πb the constant pitch length, so that the parametric equation of the helix can

    be written as R(λ) = a cos λ î + a sin λ ĵ + bλ k̂. Find the constraint force and an explicit solution to the

    equations of motion.

    Solution: The constraint can be expressed as g(r, λ) = 0 where g(r, λ) = r − R(λ). By differentiating

    twice w.r.t. t, we get:

    ẍ = −a(λ̇2 cos λ + λ̈ sin λ), (1a)

    ÿ = −a(λ̇2 sin λ − λ̈ cos λ), (1b)

    z̈ = bλ̈ . (1c)

    Substituting z̈/b for λ̈ in the first two equations and eliminating λ̇2 , we get

    a
    h(r̈) = ẍ sin λ − ÿ cos λ + z̈ = 0 . (2)
    b

    From this we read off the components of the constraint force f as

    a
    fx = µm sin λ, fy = −µm cos λ, fz = µm , (3)
    b

    where µm is the Lagrange multiplier. Hence the equations of motion become

    ẍ = µ sin λ, (4a)

    ÿ = −µ cos λ, (4b)
    a
    z̈ = −g + µ . (4c)
    b

    Date: October 2nd , 2023.


    1
    2 PARTICLE ON A HELIX BY THE METHOD OF LAGRANGE MULTIPLIERS

    Substituting Eqs. (4a) and (4b) into Eq. (2), we get µ = −az̈/b. Hence from Eq. (4c) we get
     
    b a ab
    −µ = −g + µ ⇒ µ=g , (5)
    a b a2 + b2
    a2 b2
       
    ⇒ z̈ = −g 1 − = −g , (6)
    a2 + b2 a2 + b2
    z̈ gb
    ⇒ λ̈ = =− 2 . (7)
    b a + b2

    By solving Eq. (7) for λ(t), we can obtain x(t), y(t) and z(t) e.g. x(t) = a cos λ(t), etc.

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