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Adding Swing

The document describes the motion of a swing system with two degrees of freedom. It provides expressions for the coordinates and velocities of the point mass in terms of the angular positions and velocities. It also determines the kinetic energy, potential energy, Lagrangian, canonical momentum, Hamiltonian, and Hamilton's equations of motion for the system.

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45 views3 pages

Adding Swing

The document describes the motion of a swing system with two degrees of freedom. It provides expressions for the coordinates and velocities of the point mass in terms of the angular positions and velocities. It also determines the kinetic energy, potential energy, Lagrangian, canonical momentum, Hamiltonian, and Hamilton's equations of motion for the system.

Uploaded by

mozesdeheilige
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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(1) Adding swing

A playground swing can be pumped by rocking your body back and


forth relative to the rope position. We want to describe the angular
motion of the swing for a given rocking motion. We approximate the
rope as a massless rigid rod of length l1 and the swinger as a pointmass
m that is connected to the ’rope’-rod by a second massless rigid rod of
length l2 . The angle of the rope with respect to the vertical is denoted
θ1 (see sketch). The ’swinger’-rod makes an angle θ2 with the rope-
rod. Gravity acts vertically downwards, and all motions occur in the
plane of the sketch. The swinger rocks with a given angular motion
θ2 (t). The positive directions of θ1,2 are counter-clockwise (see sketch).

θ1 l1

θ2
l2

Figure 1: Photo taken from www.yalp.nl

The origin of the x, y-coordinate system is at the pivot point of the


’rope’-rod.
(1 pts) (a) How many degrees of freedom does the system have?
(4 pts) (b) Express the x, y-coordinates of the pointmass as well as its velocity
components ẋ, ẏ in terms of (θ1 , θ2 , θ̇1 , θ̇2 ).
(9 pts) (c) Determine the kinetic and potential energies as well as the Lagrangian
in terms of (θ1 , θ2 , θ̇1 , θ̇2 ). Hints: use cos(x+y) = cos x cos y −sin x sin y
and sin(x + y) = sin x cos y + cos x sin y to simplify the expressions
as much as possible.
(4 pts) (d) Determine the canonical momentum pθ1 and invert it to express θ̇1 as
a function of pθ1 .
(8 pts) (e) Determine the Hamiltonian. Hint: after some algebra one can show
that the generalized energy can be written as h =
( ) m2 2
m 2 2
θ̇
2 1 1 l + l 2
2 − 2l l
1 2 cos θ 2 − 2 l2 θ̇2 +mg [l1 (1 − cos θ1 ) + l2 cos (θ1 + θ2 )]

(1 pts) (f ) Is H a constant of the motion (i.e. conserved)?


1
(4 pts) (g) Determine the Hamiltonian equations of motion.

2
Solutions

(1) Adding swing


1a) Only one: θ1 , since θ2 is prescribed.
1b)
x = l1 sin θ1 − l2 cos (90 − θ1 − θ2 ) = l1 sin θ1 − l2 sin (θ1 + θ2 )
y = −l1 cos θ1 + l2 cos (θ1 + θ2 )
( )
ẋ = l1 θ̇1 cos θ1 − l2 θ̇1 + θ̇2 cos (θ1 + θ2 )
( )
ẏ = l1 θ̇1 sin θ1 − l2 θ̇1 + θ̇2 sin (θ1 + θ2 )

1c) V = V0 + mgy = mgl1 (1 − cos θ1 ) + mgl2 cos (θ1 + θ2 )


[ ( )2 ( ) ]
( )
T = m2 ẋ2 + ẏ 2 = m2 l12 θ̇12 + l22 θ̇1 + θ̇2 − 2l1 l2 θ̇1 θ̇1 + θ̇2 cos θ2
L=T −V.
1d) Canonical momentum:
∂L ( ( ) ( ) )
p1 = = m l1 θ̇1 + l2 θ̇1 + θ̇2 − l1 l2 2θ̇1 + θ̇2 cos θ2 .
2 2
∂ θ̇1
p1 −mθ̇2 (l22 −l1 l2 cos θ2 )
Inversion gives θ̇1 = m(l12 +l22 −2l1 l2 cos θ2 )

1e) Generalized energy: h =


m 2( 2 ) m
θ̇1 l1 + l22 − 2l1 l2 cos θ2 − l22 θ̇22 + mg [l1 (1−cos θ1 ) + l2 cos (θ1 +θ2 )]
2 2
Hamiltonian:
[ (2 )]2
p1 − mθ̇2 l2 − l1 l2 cos θ2 m2 2
H= − l θ̇ + V
2m (l12 + l22 − 2l1 l2 cos θ2 ) 2 2 2
1f ) No, since H is explicitly time-dependent through θ2 (t).
1g) Hamilton’s equations of motion
∂H
ṗ1 = − = −mg [l1 sin θ1 − l2 sin (θ1 + θ2 )]
∂θ1
( )
∂H p1 − mθ̇2 l22 − l1 l2 cos θ2
θ̇1 = =
∂p1 m (l12 + l22 − 2l1 l2 cos θ2 )

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