PH 101

Lecture 05
OUTLINE
• Energy
• Stationary Points and Minimizing
Functions
 Systems of Particles
The fundamental forces are those that act between particles, like gravity and electric forces. These depend on a number of
things: Gravitational forces between particles are proportional to the product of their masses, and electric forces are
proportional to the product of their electric charges. Charges and masses are considered to be intrinsic properties of a
particle, and specifying them is part of specifying the system itself. Apart from the intrinsic properties, the forces
depend on the location of the particles. For example, the distance between objects determines the electric and
gravitational force that one particle exerts on another. Suppose that the locations of all the
particles are described by their coordinates: x1, y1, z1 for the first particle, x2, y2, z2 for the second particle, x3, y3, z3 for the
third particle, and so on up to the last, or the Nth, particle. Then the force on any one particle is a function of its location as
well as the location of all the others. We can write this in the form:

What this equation means is that the

force on the i-th particle is a function
of the positions of all the particles.

: stands for the collective location of every particle in the

system. Another way of saying this is that the symbol
represents the set of all position vectors.
When we express the acceleration as the second derivative of the position, the equation becomes
In fact, we can write such an equation for each particle:

or, in condensed form

 States of a System of Particles

The state of a system of particles consists of more than just their current locations; it
also includes their current velocities.

For example, if the system is a single particle, its state consists of six pieces of data: the
three components of its position and the three components of its velocity. We may express
this by saying that the state is a point in a six-dimensional space of states labeled by axes
x, y, z, vx , vy , vz

Now let’s consider the motion of the particle. At each instant of time, the state is specified
by the values of the six variables x(t), y(t), z(t), vx(t), vy(t), vz(t). The history of the particle
can be pictured as a trajectory through the six dimensional state-space.
Next, consider the space of states of a system of N particles. To specify the state of
the system, we need to specify the state of every particle. This obviously means that the
space of states is 6N-dimensional: three position components and three velocity
components for each of the N particles. One may even say that the motion of the
system is a trajectory through a 6N-dimensional space
 Energy
It has a fundamental role in the Lagrangian and
Hamiltonian formulations of mechanics.
Suppose a particle P of mass m moves under the influence of a force F. Then its equation of
motion is

(1)

Here v is the velocity of P at time t. At this stage we place no restrictions on the force F. It may
depend on the position of P, the velocity of P, the time, or anything else; if more than one force is
acting on P, then F means the vector resultant of these forces. On taking the scalar product of
both sides of equation (1) with v, we obtain the scalar equation

Since,

We can write where,

 (2)

is called the kinetic energy of the particle P.

If we now integrate equation (2) over the time interval [t1, t2], we obtain

iscalled the work done by the force F during the time interval
[t1, t2]. The rate of working of F at time t is thus F · v
Suppose that the particle P moves along the x-axis under the force F acting in the
positive x-direction. In this case, the ‘work done’ integral

reduces to:

Here x1=x(t1) and x2=x(t2)

Now let V (x) be the indefinite integral of −F(x), so that

Such a V is called the potential energy function of the force field F. In terms of V , the energy
principle in rectilinear motion can be written

Or,

where E is a constant called the total energy of the particle.

 GENERAL FEATURES OF RECTILINEAR MOTION

Since T ≥ 0 (and is equal to zero only when v = 0) it follows that the position of the particle
is restricted to those values of x that satisfy

The equality will occur only when v = 0.

Suppose that V (x) has the form shown in Figure

The motion of the particle must take place either (i)

in the bounded interval a ≤ x ≤ b, or (ii) in the
unbounded interval c ≤ x ≤ ∞. Thus, if the particle
was situated in the interval [a, b] initially, this is the
interval in which the motion will take place.
 Bounded motion

Suppose that the motion is started with P in the interval [a, b] and with v positive, so that P is
moving to the right. Then, since v can only be zero at x = a and x = b, v will remain positive
until P reaches the point x = b, where it comes to rest. From equation , it follows that the ODE
that governs this ‘right’ part of the motion is

At the point x = b, dV/dx > 0 which implies that F < 0. P therefore moves to the left and does not
stop until it reaches the point x = a. The ODE that governs this ‘left’ part of the motion is

At the point x = a, dV/dx < 0, which implies that F > 0 and that P moves to the right once again.
The result is that P performs periodic oscillations between the extreme points x = a and x = b.
 Since the ‘left’ and ‘right’ parts of the motion take equal times, the period τ of these
oscillations can be found by integrating either equation over the interval a ≤ x ≤ b. Each
equation is a separable ODE and integration gives

It should be noted that these oscillations are generally not simple harmonic. In particular, their
period is amplitude dependent.

Unbounded motions
Suppose now that the motion is started with P in the interval [c, ∞) and with v negative, so
that P is moving to the left. Then, since v can only be zero at x = c, v will remain negative
until P reaches the point x = c, where it comes to rest. At the point x = c, dV/dx < 0 which
implies that F > 0. P therefore moves to the right and continues to do so indefinitely
 Equilibrium positions of a particle


The point A is said to be an equilibrium position of a particle P if, when P is released from
rest at A, P remains at A

In the case of rectilinear motion under a force field F(x), the point x = a will be an equilibrium
position of P if (and only if) F(a) = 0, that is, if dV/dx (at x=a) = 0. The equilibrium positions
of P are the stationary points of the potential energy function V (x).

Stable Equilibrium
Unstable Equilibrium
 Approximate equation of motion for small oscillations

Suppose that the point x = a is a minimum point of the potential energy V (x). Then, when x is
sufficiently close to a, we may approximate V (x) by the first three terms of its Taylor series in
powers of the variable (x − a), as follows:

Here,
Thus, for small amplitude oscillations about x = a, the energy conservation equation
is approximately:

If we now differentiate this equation with respect to t (and divide by v), we obtain the
approximate (linearised) equation of motion
 Recall the Gradient operator!

If ψ(r) is a scalar field then grad ψ is the vector field defined by
 Conservative field


If the field F(r) can be expressed in the form

where V (r) is a scalar function of position, then F is said to be a conservative field and the
function V is said to be the potential energy function for F
Example:

Solution:
How to check quickly if a given force field, !, is conservative?
 ENERGY CONSERVATION IN A CONSERVATIVE FIELD
Suppose now that the particle P is in general three-dimensional motion under the force F
and that, in the time interval [tA, tB], P moves from the point A to the point B along the
path C, as shown in Figure. Then, by the energy principle,

(1)

where TA and TB are the kinetic energies of P when t = tA and t =

tB respectively. When F is a force field F(r), the ‘work done’ integral
on the right side of equation (1) can be written in the form

(2)

Thus, (3)
Suppose now that the field F(r) is conservative with potential energy V (r) and let C be any
path connecting the points A and B. Then

Thus, when F is conservative with potential energy V, (4)

for
any path C connecting the points A and B. The energy principle can therefore
be written, from (3) and (4)

which is equivalent to the energy conservation formula

Stationary Points and Minimizing Functions

Let’s look at a function of y that we call, say F

Notice that there are places on the curve where

a shift in y in either direction produces only an
upward shift in F. These points are called local
minima.
 Local minima -> (look at the red dots)

Foreach local minimum, when you go in either direction along y, you begin to rise
above the dot in F(y). Each dot is at the bottom of a little depression. The global
minimum is the lowest possible place on the curve.
 One condition for a local minimum is that the derivative of the function with respect to
the independent variable at that point is zero. This is a necessary condition, but not a
sufficient condition. This condition defines any stationary point:

The second condition tests to see what the character of the stationary point is by
examining its second derivative. If the second derivative is larger than 0, then all points
nearby will be above the stationary point, and we have a local minimum:
Ifthe second derivative is less than 0, then all points nearby will be below the
stationary point, and we have a local maximum:
If the second derivative is equal to 0, then the derivative changes from positive to
negative at the stationary point, which we call a point of inflection: