Physics 430: Lecture 26

Lagrangian Approach

Dale E. Gary
NJIT Physics Department
 11.4 Lagrangian ApproachCarts
and Springs
Lets do the problem of two carts and three springs using the Lagrangian
approach, just to show that we arrive at the same two equations of motion.
In this problem, using the same x1 and x2 as coordinates, we easily arrive at
the kinetic energy:
T 12 m1 x12 12 m2 x22 .
To write down the potential energy, consider the extension of each spring,
i.e. x1 for spring k1, x2 x1 for spring k2, and x2 for spring k3. Then the
potential energy is
U 12 k1 x12 12 k2 ( x2 x1 ) 2 12 k3 x22
12 (k1 k2 ) x12 k2 x1 x2 12 (k2 k3 ) x22 .
Writing the Lagrangian, T U, and inserting into the two Lagrangian
equations, gives as usual: d L L
or m1 x1 (k1 k2 ) x1 k2 x2
dt x1 x1
d L L
or m2 x2 k2 x1 ( k2 k3 ) x2 .
dt x2 x2
The problem then proceeds as before.
December 08, 2009
 Lagrangian ApproachDouble
Pendulum
There was no particular advantage to using the Lagrangian approach for that
problem, but there are others for which the Lagrangian approach is distinctly
easiersuch as the double pendulum shown at right.
This is just a second pendulum of mass m2 and length L2
connected to a pendulum of mass m1 and length L1. f1 L1
The two angular coordinates are the obvious ones to use L1f1
for our generalized coordinates. m1
L2f2
Note from the figure that the motion of bob two is the vector f2
L2
L1f1
sum of its own motion, and that of bob one that it is connected
to. Thus, the kinetic energy is m2
T 12 m1 L12f12 12 m2 [ L12f12 2 L1 L2f1f2 cos(f1 f2 ) L22f22 ]
12 (m1 m2 ) L12f12 m2 L1 L2f1f2 cos(f1 f2 ) 12 m2 L22f22 .
Likewise, for U we see that the height of the bobs are L1(1 cosf1) and this
height plus L2(1 cosf2) :
U (m1 m2 ) gL1 (1 cos f1 ) m2 gL2 (1 cos f2 ).
But the resulting Lagrangian is not solvable analytically.

December 08, 2009

 Double Pendulum-2
Instead, we will do a Taylor expansion of the cosine terms to linearize the
problem. This will allow us to obtain a solution for small oscillations about
the equilibrium position (i.e. about f1 = f2 = 0).
Writing cos f 1 f2/2, we keep only the leading term in the kinetic energy
(because that term is already multiplied by the doubly small term f1f2 ), and
keep both terms in the potential energy:
T 12 (m1 m2 ) L12f12 m2 L1 L2f1f2 12 m2 L22f22 .
U 12 (m1 m2 ) gL1f12 12 m2 gL2f22 .
Writing the Lagrangian, T U, and inserting into the two Lagrangian
equations, gives as usual:
d L L
or (m1 m2 ) L12f1 m2 L1 L2f2 (m1 m2 ) gL1f1
dt f1 f1
d L L
or m2 L1 L2f1 m2 L22f2 m2 gL2f2 .
dt f2 f2
We now write (m1 m2 ) L12 m2 L1 L2 (m m2 ) gL1 0
this to look like M 2
, and K 1 .
Mf Kf, m2 L1 L2 m2 L2 0 m2 gL2

December 08, 2009

 Double Pendulum-3
The rest of the solution is just like last time. We look for wave solutions
z (t ) a
z(t ) 1 1 eit ,
z2 (t ) a2
whose real part is the physical solution f(t ) Re z (t ). This leads us to
(K 2 M)a 0,
which is solved to find the normal mode frequencies.
Lets solve this for the case of equal masses and equal lengths:
2 2(o ) 2
2mgL 2mL2 2 mL2 2 2 2
K M
2
2 2
mL 2
,
mL mgL mL o
2 2 2 2

where in the last step I introduced the oscillation frequency for a single
pendulum, g / L.
Setting the determinant to zero leads to
2(o2 2 )2 4 4 4o2 2 o4 0,
with solutions
12 2 2 o2 and 22 2 2 o2 .

December 08, 2009

 Double Pendulum-4
Now that we know the normal mode frequencies, we can insert them one at
a time into
(K 2 M)a 0,
to find the two normal modes.
Inserting 1, we have
2 2
(K M)a mL
2
1
2
o
2 1 a 0,
2 1
which implies a2 2a1 .
The final result, then, is
a1 i1t 1
f(t ) Re e A1 cos(1t 1 ). [first mode]
a2 2
This means the lower pendulum has a slightly higher amplitude, but they
oscillate at the same frequency. You can simulate this is Phun.
A similar analysis for the second normal mode frequency shows
2 2
(K M)a mL
2
2
2
o
2 1 a 0, or a2 2a1 .
2 1
December 08, 2009
 Double Pendulum-5
The second mode solution, then, is
a1 i2t 1
f(t ) Re e A2 cos(2 t 2 ). [second mode]
2
a 2
And, of course, the general solution is considerably more complicated, being
a linear combination of the two normal modes.

December 08, 2009

 The General Case
Having seen that we can describe carts on springs and pendulums under
gravity in the same way, we want to generalize the discussion to n degrees of
freedom (n generalized coordinates q = (q1, , qn)). Note that this is not a
three-dimensional vector, but rather a vector in the n -dimensional space of
the generalized coordinates.
We will assume that the general system is conservative, so that it has
potential energy
U (q1 ,..., qn ) U (q)
and Lagrangian L = T U. The kinetic energy is T 12 m r2 , where the sum
runs over all particles, but in terms of the generalized coordinates we can
write this as T1 2
A (q)q q ,
j ,k
jk j k

where the coefficients Ajk(q) may depend on the coordinates q (see T for the
double pendulum).
Our final assumption is that the system is undergoing only small oscillations,
which means we Taylor expand T and U if necessary to make the equations
quadratic, e.g. U 2U
U (q) U (0) qj 2
1
q j qk 12 K jk q j qk .
j q j j , k q j qk j ,k

December 08, 2009

 The General Case-2
For T, after Taylor expansion we have T 1
2 M
j ,k
jk q j qk ,

As an example, consider a bead on a wire of arbitrary shape f(x), with a dip (a

minimum) at x = 0. The potential energy of the
bead is U = mgy = mgf(x). When we Taylor y
y = f(x)
expand, since f(0) = f (0) = 0, we have
U 12 mgf (0) x 2 .
The kinetic energy of the bead is x
T 12 m( x 2 y 2 ),
but, by the chain rule
y f ( x) x,
so
T 12 mx 2 (1 f ( x) 2 ) 12 mx 2 (1 f (0) 2 ) 12 mx 2 .
U (q) 12 K jk q j qk
Having found the general expressions j ,k we can now write
,
down the equation of motion. T (q) 2 M jk q j qk
1

j ,k
December 08, 2009
 The General Case-3
This leads to the n general equations of motion
M ij q j Kij q j , [i = 1,
j j
, n]

These n equations can be combined into a single matrix equation

Mq Kq.

Here, q is the n x 1 column vector q1

q
qn
and M and K are n x n mass and spring-constant matrices.
As usual, we find the determinant of the characteristic or secular equation
det(K 2 M) 0.
to identify the n normal mode frequencies, and plug back in to find the n
eigenvectors.
Lets use this to do one more example, a system of three coupled pendulums
with three degrees of freedom.

December 08, 2009

 11.6 Three Coupled Pendulums
Consider three identical pendulums coupled by two identical springs. Well
use the three angles as generalized coordinates.
The kinetic energy is
T 12 mL2 (f12 f22 f32 ). f2
The height of each pendulum is h = L(1 cos f) Lf2, f1 f3
so the gravitational potential energy is
Ugrav 12 mgL(f12 f22 f32 ).
The spring potential energy is
U spr 12 kL2 [(f2 f1 ) 2 (f3 f2 ) 2 ]
12 kL2 (f12 2f22 f32 2f1f2 2f2f3 ).
Now the text introduces the idea of using natural units, popular among
theorists, which is to set uninteresting constants to unity, carry through the
analysis, and at the end reinsert the constants if necessary. In this case, this
means setting L = m = 1, which amounts to dropping them:
T 12 (f12 f22 f32 ),
U 12 g (f12 f22 f32 ) 12 k (f12 2f22 f32 2f1f2 2f2f3 ).
December 08, 2009
 Three Coupled Pendulums-2
We could now write down the Lagrangian and turn the crank to get the
equations of motion, but you already know that it will lead to the usual:
Mf Kf
All we need to do is read the masses and spring constants directly from T
and U, T 12 (f12 f22 f32 ),
U 12 g (f12 f22 f32 ) 12 k (f12 2f22 f32 2f1f2 2f2f3 ).
U (q) 12 K jk q j qk

using . This gives the result:
j ,k

2
1
T (q ) M jk j k
q q
j ,k 1 0 0 g k k 0
M 0 1 0 and K k g 2k k .
0 0 1 0 k g k

The rule is this: if you ignore the factor in front of the equation for U, then the
diagonal element Kii is just the coefficient of fi2, while an off-diagonal element Kij
is half the coefficient of fifj.
December 08, 2009
 Three Coupled Pendulums-3
The rest of the solution is as before, except we have three x three matrices.
We look for wave solutions z1 (t ) a1
z (t ) z2 (t ) a2 eit ,
z3 (t ) a3
whose real part is the physical solution f(t ) Re z (t ). This leads us to
(K 2 M)a 0,
which is solved to find the (three) normal mode frequencies.
Inserting: g k 2 k 0

K 2M k g 2k 2 k
0 k g k
2

Setting the determinant to zero leads to
( g 2 )( g k 2 )( g 3k 2 ) 0,
with solutions
12 g , 22 g k and 32 g 3k .
Recall that we may want to reinsert L and m at this stage, to get
12 g L , 22 g L k m and 32 g L 3k m .
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 Three Coupled Pendulums-4
Substituting these in turn into (K 2 M)a 0, we find the eigenvectors
a1 a2 a3 Ae i , [first mode]
a1 a3 , but a2 0, [second mode]
a1 12 a2 a3 . [third mode]

After inserting this for z(t) and taking the real part, the equations
represented by the first normal mode are:
f1 f2 f3 A cos(1t )

Here is a graphical depiction of the three normal modes:

December 08, 2009

 The End of the Course, but
We have come to the end of the course, but there are still many interesting
topics that we did not have time to cover. Some of these are introduced in Part
II of the text, Chapters 12-16.
Chapter 12 expands on our discussion by considering nonlinearity, which is
something we have stayed away from. It is important to realize that in the limit
of small oscillations we have gotten away with this, but ALL systems display
non-linearity at some level. Chapter 12 shows that one result of nonlinearity is
chaos, and there is a vigorous branch of modern study devoted to chaos
theory.
Chapter 13 describes a related but distinct formalism called Hamiltonian
Mechanics, which uses the total energy T + U, rather that the Lagrangian T U
as its basis.
Chapter 14 introduces collision theory, important in many branches of Physics
including my own area of solar radio research. Collisions between ions and
electrons in the solar plasma generate much of the radio photons we study.

December 08, 2009

 Not the End of Mechanics
Chapter 15 introduces relativistic mechanics, which plays a huge role in high
energy physics, and in most electrodynamics even at non-relativistic speeds.
It is also central to several aspects of astrophysics.
Finally, Chapter 16 discusses continuum mechanics. When we discussed
rotation of rigid bodies in Chapter 10, we had to assume they were rigid, i.e.
did not deform. However, in practice most bodies do deform when they
interact, so if we want to treat collisions or other interactions of macroscopic
objects we have to study continuum mechanics.

The point is that you should at least leaf through the material in these chapters
and see what they contain. The chapter on chaos is particularly interesting and
surprising. With what you have learned so far in this course, you should be
able to handle the new material contained in these chapters. Use the
Christmas break to spend a little time with it.

Youve been a great class, and as usual I learned a lot in teaching this. I hope
you have, too.
December 08, 2009