Part I: Classical Physics

MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 2014

Section 1 Classical Mechanics (4 out of 5 questions) 1:00 PM3:00 PM Section 2 Electricity, Magnetism and Electrodynamics (4 out of 5questions) 3:10 PM 5:10 PM

Part II: Modern Physics WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2014

Section 3 Quantum Mechanics (4 out of 5 questions) 1:00 PM 3:00 PM Section 4 Relativity and Applied QM (4 out of 5 questions) 3:10 PM- 5:10 PM

Part III: General Physics FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 2014

Section 5 Thermodynamics and other various topics (4 out of 6 questions) 1:00 PM 3:00 PM Section 6 Various Topics (4 out of 6 questions) 3:10 PM - 5:10 PM On each day, each student may bring one 8 x 11 formula sheet, hand written, using both sides. The formula sheets will be collected with the completed exam booklets. The formula sheet is the only material to which students can refer during the exams. Simple calculators are permitted. However, the use of calculators for storing and/or recovering formulas or constants is NOT permitted. Classes begin on Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Part IV: Oral Examinations WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22 (afternoon) and THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2014 (all day)
Days and times are to be arranged; approximately one half hour to 45 minutes per student with a three-member faculty committee. Orals usually cover a review of questions not answered correctly on the written exams (although a review of other questions is possible) and a discussion of research interests (past and future). Faculty Meeting to discuss results: FRIDAY, January 24, 2014. Results will be announced at the conclusion of this meeting by the Director of Graduate Studies.

Lecture 1 Classical Mechanics and Lagrangian Mechanics

1. Deriving the Lagrange equation
1.1 Virtual work and dAlembert principle From a purely classical mechanical point of view, Lagrangian mechanics is introduced as a way of solving particles moving under constraint that is more convenient than Newtonian mechanics. It cancels the constraint forces and directly gives the motion of the particles given only the applied forces acting on them. Suppose we have constrained interacting particles, whose positions are given by

where The above coordinates

is a set of independent real parameters called generalized coordinates. equations are called mapping equations, which map a set of generalized into the Cartesian coordinates of the particles.

The particles will be subject to forces of two types: applied forces , which are active and drive the particles to move, and constraint forces , which are passive and only keep the particles onto the constraint surface. The explicit time dependence in the mapping equations allows for the possibility of a time-dependent constraint surface, which changes the mapping rule as time goes by. The Newtonian equations of the particles are given by

In case of a frictionless constraint, the constraint forces will be normal to the surface but can still do work if the surface moves. In order to cancel the constraint forces, we consider a virtual displacement

of the particles with the constraint surface fixed at a certain time. This is like taking a snapshot of the constraint surface and letting the particles move on it. And then it s clear to say that frictionless constraint forces do no virtual work, i.e.

We therefore arrive at the dAlembert principle

1.2 Generalized force and Lagrange equation The left-hand side of the above equation gives us

where

are defined as the generalized forces. They do not act on a single particle, but on the generalized coordinates , which may in general describe collective motion. The right-hand side gives us

From the mapping equation

, we have

Therefore we have,

and

Using these two equations, we get

Since the total kinetic energy of the system is

and particle mass

definitely stays constant, we have

Finally, from our assumption that the generalized coordinates

are independent, we get

These equations are called Lagrange equations. They tell us the motion of the particles without involving the constraint forces. One may wonder why we need to assume that the generalized coordinates are independent. If they are not, why cant we just cancel some of them and keep only the rest? However, cancelation of generalized coordinates using the constraints works for holonomic constraints only, when the dependence of the variations is integrable. In case of a nonholonimic constraint, the are inter-related but not integrable, so that there is still no oneto-one correspondence between the generalized coordinates. The quantum-mechanical analogue

of this situation is Berry phase. We will not go into the details here. 1.3 Lagrange equation of a conservative system In case that the applied forces , such that are conservative, we may introduce a potential function

In this case, the generalized forces can be found to be

where we plugged in the mapping equations and used the chain rule. Since doesnt depend on the generalized velocities Therefore, the Lagrange equation becomes

, we have

where is introduced and is called the Lagrangian of the system. This equation is more often referred to as the Lagrangian equation. In some systems, we may introduce a potential function that also depends on the generalized velocities . If the Lagrangian constructed yields the correct classical motion, we still accept the validity of the above Lagrangian equation, in a more generalized sense. For example, the Lagrangian of a non-relativistic particle moving in an electromagnetic field can be constructed as

The vector potential is coupled with the particles velocity so as to give a velocitydependent potential. Plugging this Lagrangian into the Lagrange equation, we get

which gives precisely the Lorentz force law.

2. Conservation laws of Lagrangian mechanics

2.1 Cyclic coordinate In case that , is called a cyclic coordinate of the system. In this case, from the Lagrange equation above, we have

This tells us that whenever the system is invariant under translation along conjugate momentum is conserved.

, the corresponding

2.2 Energy conservation In case that , the system exhibits time translational invariance. We can find another conserved quantity in this case. Multiplying onto the Lagrange equation, we get

where the added term on the right-hand side

. The left-hand side can be rewritten as

This gives us

where is defined as the Hamiltonian of the system. In case of a time-independent constraint surface, since

is a linear homogeneous function of the generalized velocities , the total kinetic energy will be quadratic homogeneous while is independent of . In this case, from Euler s theorem of homogeneous functions, we have

which is the total energy of the system. Therefore time translational invariance implies energy conservation. These two situations are special cases of the more general Noether s theorem, which states that any differentiable symmetry of a system has a corresponding conservation law.

3. Sample Problems
3.1 Problem 4 in Sec 1, 2013 A mass m slides down a circularly curved surface on an object with mass M as shown in the diagram below. Mass M is free to slide on a frictionless surface. What are the final speeds of the two masses after m separates from M?

Solution: to find the Lagrangian, we have

Therefore, the Lagrangian is

Since

, we have

which is the conservation of horizontal momentum. And since , we have

which is the conservation of energy. Plugging in the initial and final states, the two conserved quantities give us two equations

which give us

Maybe youll feel using Lagrangian mechanics makes the problem harder than it has to be, because we knew that energy and horizontal momentum are conserved. We dont need the Lagrangian to tell us that. But the next problem will be different.

3.2 Problem 5 in Sec 1, 2013 A point particle of mass m slides without friction within a hoop of radius R and mass M. The hoop is free to roll without slipping along a horizontal surface. What is the frequency of small oscillations of the point mass, when it is close to the bottom of the hoop?

Since the hoop rolls on the horizontal surface instead of sliding frictionlessly, the horizontal momentum is not conserved. But the system definitely exhibits translational invariance along the horizontal direction. Now you see it s not so easy to find this crucial conserved quantity in this problem without using Lagrangian mechanics. Solution: to find the Lagrangian, we have

Since M rolls without slipping, we have . Therefore, the Lagrangian is given by

. And the moment of inertia of a hoop is

Since

, we have

which is the conserved quantity we couldnt easily find using Newtonian mechanics. And since , we have

which is the conservation of energy. Since the system does an oscillation with no drift in the horizontal direction, the conserved quantity these, say . This gives a constraint between . Then the Hamiltonian becomes and so that we can cancel one of

Now we use the small angle approximation

, keeping only quadratic terms of

and

, so that

The last term is a constant and can be discarded without changing the physics. We now have the Hamiltonian of a simple harmonic oscillator. The angular frequency of oscillation can be found to be

3.3 Problem 2 in Sec 1, 2011 A flyball governor consists of two masses m connected to arms of length l and a mass M as shown below. The assembly is constrained to rotate around a shaft on which the mass M can slide up and down without friction. Neglect the mass of the arms, air friction and assume that the diameter of mass M is small. Suppose that the shaft is constrained to rotate at angular velocity . (a) Calculate the equilibrium height of the mass M. (b) Calculate the frequency of small oscillations around this value.

This problem can be solved using Newtonian mechanics by going into the rotating frame and introducing the centrifugal (inertial) forces. And once the system oscillates, there will be also Coriolis forces. But these forces will be perpendicular to the velocities of the masses and will not affect their motions under the constraints they are subject to. But still, using Lagrangian mechanics, we dont need to worry about these. All we need is write down the energies to get the Lagrangian. (a) We have

and

Therefore the Lagrangian is found to be

Since

, we have the conserved quantity

Notice that since the system in this problem is subject to a time-dependent constraint (because the system is forced to rotate at angular frequency ), the Hamiltonian is not equal to any more. The term in can be understood as the centrifugal potential energy if one studies the problem in the rotating frame. And Coriolis force is not involved, no matter what crazy motion can do. To find the equilibrium angle , we set and minimize the total energy

by taking the derivative:

If

, we have

, so that the only solution is

. This

makes sense. If the system rotates too slowly, the two arms are not going to open at all: they re going to stay vertically down. One may take the second-order derivative and claim that the above equilibrium position becomes unstable if , so that the system will stay at the angle

(b) Now we need to consider the motion of in the vicinity of . We need to approximate as a quadratic function by taking its second-order derivative at :

Then using

, we get

Assuming

, we have

. Therefore the system oscillates around the

equilibrium position given by

. The Hamiltonian under small angle approximation

is

The angular frequency of small angle oscillation is therefore

This problem is nearly the hardest one involving small oscillations with only one degree of freedom. The Lagrangian method can also be used for solving multi-dimensional oscillations.

3.4 Problem 5 in Sec 1, 2011 A pendulum consisting of a massless rod of length L with a mass M at its end hangs from a fixed point. A second pendulum of the same construction hangs from the end of the first pendulum. The pendulums are constrained to move in the same plane. Find the frequencies of small oscillation and clearly describe the corresponding motions assuming that neither pendulum moves far from the vertical configuration. Let the angle between the upper pendulum and the vertical direction be , and the angle between the lower pendulum and the vertical direction be . Given that both and are small, the total kinetic energy of the system can be found to be

And the total potential energy is

Therefore, the Lagrangian is

We recognize that this is a harmonic oscillator with two degrees of freedom. The Lagrangian and the two Lagrange equations can be written more compactly in matrix form:

so that

This is a generalized eigenvalue problem. The eigen-equation we get is

where

The two eigen-frequencies are therefore

And the corresponding two eigenmodes satisfy higher frequency (differential mode). The mode

. The mode

has a

and the two pendulums oscillate in opposite directions has a lower frequency and the two

pendulums oscillate in the same direction (common mode). The Lagrangian method is very useful and important in solving classical mechanical problems. Its advantage mainly reveals when the system is subject to very complicated constraints and the constraint forces arent relevant to the problem. Following the Lagrangian method, the procedure is standard and the result is reliable. But one still needs to be aware of the limitations of the method. It s not applicable, for example, to dissipative systems (with friction) or open systems (with changing mass). These problems need to be solved using different methods.

4. Extra Problem
This section has a changing mass problem, in case theres extra time. (Problem 5 in Sec 1, 2012) Find the net acceleration of a raindrop falling through a cloud. Assume that the raindrop is a tiny sphere, and the cloud consists of similar small droplets that are uniformly suspended at rest; when the falling drop hits a droplet within the cloud, the two merge into a combined, still spherical, drop, which continues falling.

There are three parameters that fully describe the status of the raindrop: its radius , its mass and its falling speed . Notice that this is a changing mass problem. Neither Newtons second law nor Lagrangian mechanics is applicable here. To establish equations for , and , we start with the most obvious ones:

where is the density of water and is the density of the cloud. For each tiny bit of mass added to the raindrop, we have

because the velocity of equation

before hitting the raindrop is zero. We therefore have the third

You may feel that this equation is intuitively true. But it should not be taken for granted. It would be incorrect if the velocity of before hitting the raindrop were nonzero. Using , we may cancel and only keep two variables and . We get

We may plug the first equation into the second one to cancel

, and get

This is a first-order linear ODE. The general solution formula for the general form

is given by

where is an arbitrary constant to be determined by the initial condition. The position can be arbitrarily chosen. Different choices of generate the same set of general solutions via changing the arbitrary constant . Using this general solution formula above, we have

Given that initially the raindrop has . Therefore,

and

so that

, we get

given that Therefore,

at

which means the acceleration of the raindrop is