Introduction to Classical Mechanics With Problems and Solutions This textbook covers all the standard introductory topics in classical mechanics, including Newton’s laws, oscillations, energy, momentum, angular momentum, planetary motion, and special relativity. It also explores more advanced topics, such as normal modes, the Lagrangian method, gyroscopic motion, fictitious forces, 4-vectors, and general relativity. It contains more than 250 problems with detailed solutions so students can easily check their understanding of the topic. There are also over 350 unworked exercises, which are ideal for homework assignments.
Password-protected solutions are available to instructors at www. The vast number of problems alone makes it an ideal supplementary book for all levels of undergraduate physics courses in classical mechanics. The text also includes many additional remarks which discuss issues that are often glossed over in other textbooks, and it is thoroughly illustrated with more than 600 figures to help demonstrate key concepts. David Morin is a Lecturer in Physics at Harvard University.
He received his Ph. in theoretical particle physics from Harvard in 1996. When not writing physics limericks or thinking of new problems whose answers involve e or the golden ratio, he can be found running along the Charles River or hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. MORIN: “FM” — 2007/10/9 — 19:08 — page i — #1 MORIN: “FM” — 2007/10/9 — 19:08 — page ii — #2 Introduction to Classical Mechanics With Problems and Solutions David Morin Harvard University MORIN: “FM” — 2007/10/9 — 19:08 — page iii — #3 Cambridge University Press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.org Information on this title: www.
Morin 2007 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2008 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library ISBN 978-0-521-87622-3 hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. MORIN: “FM” — 2007/10/9 — 19:08 — page iv — #4 To Allen Gerry and Neil Tame, who took the time to give a group of kids some really cool problems MORIN: “FM” — 2007/10/9 — 19:08 — page v — #5 There once was a classical theory, Of which quantum disciples were leery.
They said, “Why spend so long On a theory that’s wrong?” Well, it works for your everyday query! MORIN: “FM” — 2007/10/9 — 19:08 — page vi — #6 Contents Preface page xiii 1 Strategies for solving problems 1 1.2 Units, dimensional analysis 4 1.3 Approximations, limiting cases 7 1.4 Solving differential equations numerically 11 1.5 Solutions 39 3 Using F = ma 51 3.2 Free-body diagrams 55 3.3 Solving differential equations 60 3.5 Motion in a plane, polar coordinates 68 3.1 Linear differential equations 101 4.2 Simple harmonic motion 105 vii MORIN: “FM” — 2007/10/9 — 19:08 — page vii — #7 viii Contents 4.3 Damped harmonic motion 107 4.4 Driven (and damped) harmonic motion 109 4.8 Solutions 127 5 Conservation of energy and momentum 138 5.1 Conservation of energy in one dimension 138 5.3 Conservation of energy in three dimensions 148 5.6 The center of mass frame 161 5.8 Inherently inelastic processes 167 5.11 Solutions 194 6 The Lagrangian method 218 6.1 The Euler–Lagrange equations 218 6.2 The principle of stationary action 221 6.3 Forces of constraint 227 6.4 Change of coordinates 229 6.11 Solutions 255 7 Central forces 281 7.1 Conservation of angular momentum 281 7.2 The effective potential 283 7.3 Solving the equations of motion 285 7.4 Gravity, Kepler’s laws 287 7.7 Solutions 300 MORIN: “FM” — 2007/10/9 — 19:08 — page viii — #8 Contents ix 8 Angular momentum, Part I (Constant L̂) 309 8.1 Pancake object in x-y plane 310 8.3 Calculating moments of inertia 318 8.9 Solutions 349 9 Angular momentum, Part II (General L̂) 371 9.1 Preliminaries concerning rotations 371 9.2 The inertia tensor 376 9.4 Two basic types of problems 388 9.6 Free symmetric top 396 9.7 Heavy symmetric top 399 9.10 Solutions 428 10 Accelerating frames of reference 457 10.1 Relating the coordinates 458 10.2 The fictitious forces 460 10.3 The fundamental effects 511 11.4 The Lorentz transformations 523 11.6 The invariant interval 533 11.8 The Doppler effect 539 11.10 Relativity without c 546 MORIN: “FM” — 2007/10/9 — 19:08 — page ix — #9 x Contents 11.1 Energy and momentum 584 12.2 Transformations of E and p 594 12.3 Collisions and decays 596 12.4 Particle-physics units 600 12.1 Definition of 4-vectors 634 13.2 Examples of 4-vectors 635 13.3 Properties of 4-vectors 637 13.5 Force and acceleration 640 13.6 The form of physical laws 643 13.9 Solutions 646 14 General Relativity 649 14.1 The Equivalence Principle 649 14.3 Uniformly accelerating frame 653 14.4 Maximal-proper-time principle 656 14.5 Twin paradox revisited 658 14.8 Solutions 666 Appendix A Useful formulas 675 Appendix B Multivariable, vector calculus 679 Appendix C F = ma vs. F = dp/dt 690 Appendix D Existence of principal axes 693 Appendix E Diagonalizing matrices 696 Appendix F Qualitative relativity questions 698 MORIN: “FM” — 2007/10/9 — 19:08 — page x — #10 Contents xi Appendix G Derivations of the Lv/c2 result 704 Appendix H Resolutions to the twin paradox 706 Appendix I Lorentz transformations 708 Appendix J Physical constants and data 711 References 713 Index 716 MORIN: “FM” — 2007/10/9 — 19:08 — page xi — #11 MORIN: “FM” — 2007/10/9 — 19:08 — page xii — #12 Preface This book grew out of Harvard University’s honors freshman mechanics course. It is essentially two books in one. Roughly half of each chapter follows the form of a normal textbook, consisting of text, along with exercises suitable for homework assignments.
The other half takes the form of a “problem book,” with all sorts of problems (and solutions) of varying degrees of difficulty. I’ve always thought that doing problems is the best way to learn, so if you’ve been searching for a supply to puzzle over, I think this will keep you busy for a while. This book is somewhat of a quirky one, so let me say right at the start how I imagine it being used: • As the primary text for honors freshman mechanics courses. My original motivation for writing it was the fact that there didn’t exist a suitable book for Harvard’s freshman course.
So after nine years of using updated versions in the class, here is the finished product. • As a supplementary text for standard freshman courses for physics majors. Although this book starts at the beginning of mechanics and is self contained, it doesn’t spend as much time on the introductory material as other freshman books do. I therefore don’t recommend using this as the only text for a standard freshman mechanics course.
However, it will make an extremely useful supplement, both as a problem book for all students, and as a more advanced textbook for students who want to dive further into certain topics. • As a supplementary text for upper-level mechanics courses, or as the primary text which is supplemented with another book for additional topics often covered in upper-level courses, such as Hamilton’s equations, fluids, chaos, Fourier analysis, electricity and magnetism applications, etc. With all of the worked examples and in-depth discussions, you really can’t go wrong in pairing up this book with another one. • As a problem book for anyone who likes solving physics problems.
This audience ranges from advanced high-school students, who I think will have a ball with it, to undergraduate and graduate students who want some amusing problems to ponder, to professors who are looking for a new supply of problems to use in their classes, and finally to anyone with a desire to learn about physics by doing problems. If you want, you can consider this to be a problem book that also happens to have comprehensive xiii MORIN: “FM” — 2007/10/9 — 19:08 — page xiii — #13 xiv Preface introductions to each topic’s set of problems. With about 250 problems (with included solutions) and 350 exercises (without included solutions), in addition to all the examples in the text, I think you’ll get your money’s worth! But just in case, I threw in 600 figures, 50 limericks, nine appearances of the golden ratio, and one cameo of e−π. The prerequisites for the book are solid high-school foundations in mechanics (no electricity and magnetism required) and single-variable calculus.
There are two minor exceptions to this. First, a few sections rely on multivariable calcu- lus, so I have given a review of this in Appendix B. The bulk of it comes in Section 5.3 (which involves the curl), but this section can easily be skipped on a first reading. Other than that, there are just some partial derivatives, dot prod- ucts, and cross products (all of which are reviewed in Appendix B) sprinkled throughout the book.
Second, a few sections (4.3, and Appendices D and E) rely on matrices and other elementary topics from linear algebra. But a basic understanding of matrices should suffice here. A brief outline of the book is as follows. Chapter 1 discusses various problem- solving strategies.
This material is extremely important, so if you read only one chapter in the book, make it this one. You should keep these strategies on the tip of your brain as you march through the rest of the book. Chapter 2 covers statics. Most of this will likely be familiar, but you’ll find some fun problems.
In Chapter 3, we learn about forces and how to apply F = ma. There’s a bit of math here needed for solving some simple differential equations. Chapter 4 deals with oscillations and coupled oscillators. Again, there’s a fair bit of math needed for solving linear differential equations, but there’s no way to avoid it.
Chapter 5 deals with conservation of energy and momentum. You’ve probably seen much of this before, but it has lots of neat problems. In Chapter 6, we introduce the Lagrangian method, which will most likely be new to you. It looks rather formidable at first, but it’s really not all that rough.
There are difficult concepts at the heart of the subject, but the nice thing is that the technique is easy to apply. The situation here is analogous to taking a derivative in calculus; there are substantive concepts on which the theory rests, but the act of taking a derivative is fairly straightforward. Chapter 7 deals with central forces and planetary motion. Chapter 8 covers the easier type of angular momentum situations, where the direction of the angular momentum vector is fixed.
Chapter 9 covers the more difficult type, where the direction changes. Spinning tops and other perplexing objects fall into this category. Chapter 10 deals with accelerating reference frames and fictitious forces. Chapters 11 through 14 cover relativity.
Chapter 11 deals with relativistic kinematics – abstract particles flying through space and time. Chapter 12 covers relativistic dynamics – energy, momentum, force, etc. Chapter 13 introduces the important concept of “4-vectors.” The material in this chapter could alternatively be put in the previous two, but for various reasons I thought it best to create a MORIN: “FM” — 2007/10/9 — 19:08 — page xiv — #14 Preface xv separate chapter for it. Chapter 14 covers a few topics from General Relativity.
It’s impossible for one chapter to do this subject justice, of course, so we’ll just look at some basic (but still very interesting) examples. Finally, the appendices cover various useful, but slightly tangential, topics.