Phys 105, Spring 2015

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Homework Assignment 2 Solutions

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https://www.coursehero.com/file/16794561/HW2-sol/
 a
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ar
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m e
co rc
o. ou
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se dy
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H
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https://www.coursehero.com/file/16794561/HW2-sol/
 a
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m e
co rc
o. ou
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https://www.coursehero.com/file/16794561/HW2-sol/
 Phys 105 Spr15 Hw1 Soln5

February 12, 2015

1 Finding the Lagrangian

m
We start by noting that we have 3 dimensions, so:

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1 1
T = m(ẋ2 + ẏ 2 + ż 2 ) = m(ρ ∗ ω 2 + ρ̇2 + ż 2 ) (1)

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2 2

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Where we just switched to cylindrical polar coordinates in the second line.
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Now we use the formulas for the definition of θ, sin θ = Rρe and cos θ = z
Rp ,
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so the chain rule tells use that ρ̇ = Re cos θθ̇ and ż = Rp sin θθ̇.
Plugging in these formulas for ρ,z,ρ̇,ż we get:
1 1
T = m(Re2 sin2 θω 2 +Re2 cos2 θθ̇2 +Rp2 sin2 θθ̇2 ) = m(Re2 ω 2 sin2 θ+(Re2 cos2 θ+Rp sin2 θ)θ̇2 )
o

2 2
(2)
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The potential energy is just the potential due to gravity, so setting the 0 of
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the potential at the bottom of the elliptical hoop we find U = mg(Rp + z) where
z is defined from the center of the ellipse. In terms of our coordinate θ we find:
U = mgRp (1 − cos θ).
So our Lagrangians is given by L = T − U :
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1
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L= m(Re2 ω 2 sin2 θ + (Re2 cos2 θ + Rp sin2 θ)θ̇2 ) − mgRp (1 − cos θ) (3)

2

2 Finding the equation of motion

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∂L ∂ ∂L
We apply the Euler-Lagrange Equation: ∂θ = ∂t ∂θ to the Lagrangian we just
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wrote down, yielding:

∂
mω 2 Re2 sin θ cos θ+mθ̇2 (−Re2 cos θ sin θ+Rp2 sin θ cos θ)−mgRp sin θ = (mθ̇(Re2 cos2 θ+Rp2 sin2 θ)
∂t
(4)
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We can do the time derivative as follows:

∂
(mθ̇(Re2 cos2 θ+Rp2 sin2 θ) = mθ̈(Re2 cos2 θ+Rp2 sin2 θ)+2mθ̇2 sin θ cos θ(Rp2 −Re2 )
∂t
(5)

https://www.coursehero.com/file/16794561/HW2-sol/
 So after some algebraic simplification, we get:
mθ̈(Re2 cos2 θ+Rp2 sin2 θ)+mθ̇2 sin θ cos θ(Rp2 −Re2 ) = mω 2 Re2 sin θ cos θ−mgRp sin θ
(6)
Which we can rewrite in our familiar form as:
sin θ cos θ(Rp2 − Re2 ) 2 sin θ
θ̈ + 2 2 2 2 θ̇ = 2 (ω 2 Re2 cos θ − gRp ) (7)
Re cos θ + Rp sin θ Re sin θ + Rp2 cos2 θ
2

3 Equilibrium Points
To find equilibrium points we set θ̇ to 0 and consider values of θ such that θ̈ = 0.
So we consider the following equation:

m
sin θ
θ̈ = (ω 2 Re2 cos θ − gRp ) (8)

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Re2 sin2 θ + Rp2 cos2 θ

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Evidently we have equilibrium points at θ = 0 and θ = π. By inspection the

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equilibrium point at θ = π is unstable, whereas the equilibrium point at θ = 0
is stable for ω 2 Re2 < gRp and unstable for ω 2 Re2 > gRp . This is because the

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coefficient in front of θ is negative in the first case and positive in the second
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case (see the book discussion for more detail on this subject).
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We also have an equilibrium point when ω 2 Re2 cos θ = gR − p, which gives
gR
us two symmetric equilibrium points at θ0 = ± arccos( ω2 Rp2 ). Note that this
e
equation only has a solution when gRp < ω 2 Re2 , so these equilibrium points only
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exist when this condition is met. When they exist we find that these points are
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stable via the same logic used in the book at the end of Example 7.6.
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To summarize, I found three stable equilibrium points, with two symmetri-

cally placed on the ellipse and one at the origin. The point at the origin becomes
unstable when gRp < ω 2 Re2 which is exactly when the two new point appear.
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4 Small Oscillations about Equilibrium Points

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Now we want an approximate solution to the equations of motion for small

deviations of θ around the stable equilibrium points. Without loss of generality
we consider only two equilibrium points, the one at θ = 0 and the one at
gR
θ0 = arccos( ω2 Rp2 ). The other one at the symmetric θ0 behaves the same as its
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partner.
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Start with the θ = 0 case, so we expand around θ = 0. Thus we can drop

the θ̇2 term and approximate sin θ = θ and cos θ = 1. This turns our equation
of motion into:
θ
θ̈ = 2 (ω 2 Re2 − gRp2 ) (9)
Re + Rp2 θ2
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But we’ve ignored terms not linear in θ, so we should drop the θ2 in the denom-
inator, yielding:
gRp
θ̈ = −( 2 − ω 2 )θ (10)
Re

https://www.coursehero.com/file/16794561/HW2-sol/
 Which is the equation for a harmonic oscillator. Thus for small θ our system
behaves like a harmonic oscillator around θ = 0 with frequency:
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gRp
Ω= − ω2 (11)
Re2
gR
Now we move onto the point at θ0 = arccos( ω2 Rp2 ). This time we follow the
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book and define θ = θ0 +  where  is a small time-dependent parameter and
of course θ0 is a constant. When we have a small  we can again use formulas
from the book, cos(θ0 + ) = cos θ0 −  sin θ0 and sin(θ0 + ) = sin θ0 +  cos θ0 .
So we can then rewrite our equation of motion (again dropping θ̇2 term) as:
sin θ0 +  cos θ0
¨ = (ω 2 Re2 (cos θ0 −  sin θ0 ) − gRp )
Re2 (cos θ0 −  sin θ0 )2 + Rp2 (sin θ0 +  cos θ0 )2

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(12)
But by definition of our equilibrium point, ω 2 Re2 cos θ0 − gRp = 0 and so our

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result reduces to:

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sin θ0 +  cos θ0
¨ = 2 (−ω 2 Re2  sin θ0 ) (13)

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Re (cos θ0 −  sin θ0 )2 + Rp2 (sin θ0 +  cos θ0 )2
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We drop the 2 term and expand the denominator to get:
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−ω 2 Re2  sin2 θ0
¨ = (14)
Re2 cos2 θ0 + Rp2 sin2 θ0 +  cos θ0 sin θ0 (Rp2 − Re2 )
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Aside from constants which we can factor out, this looks like b+ which we can
Taylor expand to first order as a
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b . When we do this we get:

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ω 2 Re2 sin2 θ0
¨ = −  (15)
Re2 cos2 θ0 + Rp2 sin2 θ0
Which gives us simple harmonic oscillations about θ0 with a frequency:
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s
ω 2 Re2 sin2 θ0
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Ω= (16)
Re2 cos2 θ0 + Rp2 sin2 θ0
gR
Which we can rewrite using the definition of θ0 , where cos θ0 = ω2 Rp2 and
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gRp g 2 Rp
2
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sin θ0 = sin arccos ω2 R2 = 1 − ω4 R4 So putting this all together, we find:

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v
u g 2 R2
u ω 2 Re2 (1 − ω4 Rp4 )
e
Ω = t g 2 R2 (17)
u
2 p 2 g 2 Rp
2
Re ω4 R4 + Rp (1 − ω4 R−e 4)
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Which looks slightly simpler after some rearrangement:

s
g 2 Re2 Rp2 ω 2 − Re6 ω 6
Ω= (18)
Rp2 (g 2 (Rp2 − Re2 ) − ω 4 Re4 )

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