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Equations of Motion
Enrique Segura
September 27, 2019
Goldstein 1.15 | Symon 9.24. Show by direct calculation that for some L(q 1 , . . . , q f , q˙1 , . . . , q˙f ; t)
which satisfies Lagrange’s equation:
d ∂Lq ∂Lq
− k =0
dt ∂ q˙k ∂q
q k = fk (s1 , . . . , sf ; t), k = 1, . . . , f
then,
d ∂Ls ∂Ls
− j =0
dt ∂ s˙j ∂s
is obtained with:
1
According to the Euler-Lagrangian equation, this equation:
d ∂Lq ∂Lq
− (4)
dt ∂ q̇ ∂q
∂Lq ∂Lq ∂s
= (5)
∂q ∂s ∂q
∂Lq ∂Lq ∂ ṡ
= (6)
∂ q̇ ∂ ṡ ∂ q̇
From this inspection, we have to show:
∂ ṡ ∂s
= (7)
∂ q̇ ∂q
For that, let’s start with s and calculate its full derivative:
∂s ∂s
ds = dq + dt (8)
∂q ∂t
Dividing by dt yields
ds ∂s dq ∂s
= + (9)
dt ∂q dt ∂t
which can expressed as
∂x ∂x
ṡ = q̇ + (10)
∂q ∂t
By inspecting we can yield the following observation:
ṡ = ṡ(q̇, t) (11)
∂ ṡ ∂x ∂ ∂x
= q̇ + (12)
∂ q̇ ∂q ∂ q̇ ∂t
Since the second partial is a function of t, this term vanishes leading to:
∂ ṡ ∂s
= (13)
∂ q̇ ∂q
2
Having arrived at this result, we go back and work with the lagrangian of interest:
d ∂Lq ∂Lq
− =0 (14)
dt ∂ q̇ ∂q
d ∂Lq ∂ ṡ ∂Lq ∂s
( )− =0 (15)
dt ∂ ṡ ∂ q̇ ∂s ∂q
∂Lq ∂ ṡ ∂Lq ∂s
( )= dt (16)
∂ ṡ ∂ q̇ ∂s ∂q
And by the substitution:
∂Lq ∂ ṡ ∂Lq ∂ ṡ
( )= dt (17)
∂ ṡ ∂ q̇ ∂s ∂ q̇
3
Then by finding:
∂ q˙k ∂q k
= (27)
∂ ṡl ∂sl
this can be use to yield:
d ∂Lq ∂Lq
( )− k =0 (28)
dt ∂ q˙k ∂q
d ∂Lq ∂ q˙k ∂Lq ∂q k
( )− k l =0 (29)
dt ∂ q˙k ∂ ṡl ∂q ∂s
d ∂Ls ∂Ls
( )− =0 (30)
dt ∂ ṡ l ∂sl
And thus showing that indeed:
Or, as Goldstein puts it : “...the form of Lagrange’s equations is invariant under a point
transformation.”
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