lecture 4

Topics:
Where are we?
Conservation laws
Work and Energy and the second Law
Energy in the harmonic oscillator
More degrees of freedom
Forced oscillation and resonance
Harmonic driving forces
Energy in the driven oscillator
Breaking the wine glass
Work and Energy in three dimensions
Examples of potentials in 3-dimensions
A particle on a frictionless track
Where are we?
We have now seen a number of examples of the use of F = ma. You should all be familiar at this
point with the techniques of determining the trajectory of a classical system that is picked out by a
given set of initial conditions.
We also discussed the beautiful and surprisingly general behavior of the harmonic oscillator,
and the particularly simple description of its motion that obtains when we allow our trajectories to
involve i =

1.
Now, we will start the process of going beyond F = ma to more general and powerful ap-
proaches. This will occupy us for the next two weeks. This week, we will discuss two of the great
conservation laws of classical mechanics energy and momentum.
I also have some organizational remarks. First, a bit of good news we have now seen all
the ways of solving differential equations that we are going to use. There are really only two of
them. One is integrating, perhaps after moving things around a little bit to separate variables on
two sides of the equation before integrating. The other is hoping that the solution is an exponential,
plugging in and checking to see whether it works! Nothing more complicated is going to happen!
We will, however, do a little more multivariable calculus today. Please please please stop me and
ask questions if you see something you dont understand.
Now to work (literally and guratively)!
Conservation laws
It is somewhat unfortunate that energy conservation has come to mean two very different things.
When we read in a newspaper about energy conservation, the article is usually about using energy
carefully and not wasting it. What we mean in classical mechanics when we say energy conserva-
tion is something very different. We mean that there is a quantity called energy that is unchanged
with time for any possible trajectory of the classical system. And in fact this physical meaning of
energy conservation seems to be a basic law that survives beyond classical mechanics into the
quantum realm. I suppose that there is some connection between these two meanings. If energy
1
were not conserved in the physics sense, if we could simply make new energy whenever we need
it, then perhaps we would not have to be so worried about using it sparingly and efciently. It is
the fact that energy is conserved in the physics sense that makes it such an important quantity.
Today and next Tuesday, I will give some examples of the use of conservation of energy and
momentum. In the weeks that follow, we will address these conservations laws more systematically
and see where they come from at a deeper level. But before we can do that, we will have to learn
more about why classical mechanics looks the way it does. This will require that we reformulate
classical mechanics in a very beautiful way. And paradoxically, it will involve quantum mechanics
as well.
Work and Energy and the second Law
Lets begin by considering a single degree of freedom. Write F = ma as
m
dv
dt
= F (1)
Multiplying both sides by v gives
v m
dv
dt
=
d
dt
_
1
2
mv
2
_
= F v P (2)
The kinetic energy of a particle of mass m is
1
2
mv
2
, thus the left hand side of (2) is the rate of
change of kinetic energy. The right hand side is the power, P, supplied by the force to the particle.
This is the differential form of the work-energy relation. The power supplied by the force acting on
a particle is the rate of change of the particles kinetic energy. This is always true whether there is a
conserved energy or not it follows for any possible trajectory of the system, just from F = ma.
Integrating (2) with respect to time gives the classic work-energy relation, that the change in kinetic
energy equals the work done by the force on the particle:
1
2
mv
2
2

1
2
mv
2
1
=
_
t
2
t
1
d
dt
_
1
2
mv
2
_
dt =
_
t
2
t
1
P dt =
_
t
2
t
1
v F dt =
_
x
2
x
1
F dx (3)
The left hand side of (2) is a total time derivative. If the product F v is also a total time derivative,
then we can nd a quantity that doesnt change with time its time derivative is zero. To see this,
call
F v =
d
dt
U (4)
then (2) becomes
0 =
d
dt
_
1
2
mv
2
_
F v =
d
dt
_
1
2
mv
2
_
+
d
dt
U =
d
dt
_
1
2
mv
2
+ U
_
(5)
Then quantity in parenthesis doesnt change with time and we give it a name, energy,
E =
1
2
mv
2
+ U (6)
and we say that it is conserved because it doesnt change with time.
2
A simple way in which (4) can happen is for F to be a function only of x. Then we can take U
in (4) to be
U(x) =
_
x
x
0
F(x

) dx

(7)
Physically, this makes sense because the integral in (7) keeps track of the work done by the force
in moving from x
0
to x. If this is negative, then to make the system move in this way, we would
have to do work against the force, and would get that energy back by letting the system move back
to x
0
. Mathematically this works because we can use the chain rule to write
d
dt
U(x) =
dx
dt
d
dx
U(x) =
dx
dt
d
dx
_
x
x
0
F(x

) dx

= v F(x) (8)
So that v F is a total time derivative,
v F(x) =
d
dt
U(x) (9)
In this case, as Im sure you know, U(x) is called the potential energy, and the force is just minus
the derivative of U,
F(x) =
d
dx
U(x) (10)
Energy in the harmonic oscillator
For the harmonic oscillator, the potential energy is
1
2
K x
2
(11)
and thus the conserved energy is
E =
1
2
m x
2
+
1
2
K x
2
(12)
It is instructive to see how this works for a general solution of the form
x(t) = c cos(t ) (13)
Putting (13) into (12), we get the following for the energy:
E =
1
2
m
2
c
2
sin
2
(t ) +
1
2
K c
2
cos
2
(t ) (14)
Since =
_
K/m, this is
E =
1
2
K c
2
sin
2
(t ) +
1
2
K c
2
cos
2
(t ) =
1
2
K c
2
(15)
which is a constant, as we expected. But notice the way the mathematics manages to encode the
sloshing back and forth of energy between kinetic and potential.
3
More degrees of freedom
Consider a system with two degrees of freedom with the conguration specied by the two co-
ordinates x
1
and x
2
with masses m
1
and m
2
respectively. Denote the forces on masses 1 and 2
by F
1
and F
2
. We will begin by considering the situation in which the forces depend only on the
coordinates, not on their derivatives, so that that Newtons second law is
m
1
x
1
= F
1
(x
1
, x
2
) m
2
x
2
= F
2
(x
1
, x
2
) (16)
With one degree of freedom, we saw that there is automatically a conserved energy if the force
depends only on position. Here we will see that the situation is more complicated. To see what the
issues are, lets compute the time derivative of the kinetic energy,
d
dt
_
1
2
m
1
x
2
1
+
1
2
m
2
x
2
2
_
= m
1
x
1
x
1
+ m
2
x
2
x
2
= x
1
F
1
(x
1
, x
2
) + x
2
F
2
(x
1
, x
2
) = P (17)
P is the power fed into the system by the force. If the right hand side of (17) is the time derivative
of something,
x
1
F
1
(x
1
, x
2
) + x
2
F
2
(x
1
, x
2
)
?
=
d
dt
U (18)
then we can dene an energy that doesnt change with time
E =
1
2
m
1
x
2
1
+
1
2
m
2
x
2
2
+ U (19)
To see when there is a U satisfying (18), we need an important result from multivariable cal-
culus. The change in a function of several variable can be written as a sum of the changes in the
variables times the corresponding partial derivatives:
df(a, b, c, ) = da
f
a
+ db
f
b
+ dc
f
c
+ (20)
The reason is not too hard to understand. To nd the change in f due to a change in a with the
other variables held xed, you would multiply the change in a by the derivative of f with respect
to a with the other variables held xed (which is what the partial derivative means) to get the rst
term in (20). Similarly, to nd the change in f due to a change in b with the other variables held
xed, you would multiply the change in b by the derivative of f with respect to b with the other
variables held xed to get the second term in (20). And so on! Then the total change in f is just
the sum of all of these independent changes. When you say it in words rather than writing it down
mathematically it makes perfect sense. If you want to know how something changes, you have to
add up all the possible sources of change!
We can divide (20) by dt to get the total time derivative,
d
dt
f(a, b, c, ) = a
f
a
+

b
f
b
+ c
f
c
+ (21)
Here is a simple example that we will use much later in the course to discuss the expansion of the
universe. Consider a large imaginary sphere in the universe with radius R(t). Suppose the mass
4
density of stuff inside the sphere is approximately uniform and equal (t). Then the mass inside
the sphere is described by the function
M(R, ) =
4
3
R
3
(22)
Then the rate of change of mass inside the sphere is
d
dt
M(R, ) =

R
M
R
+
M

=

R4R
2
+
4
3
R
3
=
_
3

R
R
+

_
4
3
R
3
(23)
where in the last step we have used a useful trick to write the result in terms fractional rates of
change If the sphere expands along with the universe so no mass goes in or out, then
d
dt
M(R, ) = 0

= 3

R
R
(24)
the fractional rate of change of the density is minus three times the fractional rate of change of
the radius.
Now applying this to (18), we see that U had better not depend on derivatives of x
1
and x
2
. If
it did, (20) would give terms involving x
1
and x
2
, which we dont want. And it should not depend
on t, because that would produce a term without an x
1
or x
2
because

t = 1. Thus we want
x
1
F
1
(x
1
, x
2
) + x
2
F
2
(x
1
, x
2
) =
d
dt
U(x
1
, x
2
) = x
1
U
x
1
x
2
U
x
2
(25)
which works if
F
1
(x
1
, x
2
) =
U
x
1
and F
2
(x
1
, x
2
) =
U
x
2
(26)
There is a conserved energy if we can get the force by taking partial derivatives of a single function.
The function U is the potential energy.
1
When the forces have the form (26), you can show that
the work done by the forces in a motion of the system from one conguration to another is the
difference between the initial potential energy and the nal potential energy and therefore does not
depend on how the system gets from the initial conguration to the nal conguration.
Lets do an example of a collection of springs and two masses sliding on a straight frictionless
track, as shown in (27).
............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ ..............................................................
............................. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .............................
.................................................... ................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....................................................
1
............................. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .............................
.................................................... ................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....................................................
2
............................. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .............................
K
1
K
3
K
2
| |
x
1
x
2

(27)
We can take the coordinates x
1
and x
2
to be the (signed) distance along the track from the equilib-
rium positions of the two masses. The forces are
2
F
1
(x
1
, x
2
) = K
1
x
1
K
2
(x
1
x
2
) and F
2
(x
1
, x
2
) = K
2
(x
2
x
1
) K
3
x
2
(28)
1
There could also be contributions to the force that depend on x
1
and x
2
, but which cancel in the combination
x
1
F
1
(x
1
, x
2
) + x
2
F
2
(x
1
, x
2
). This is the way the magnetic force works. See (73).
2
As always, the direction of positive force is the direction in which the coordinate is increasing.
5
As we might guess from our previous discussion of a single spring, if we choose
U(x
1
, x
2
) =
K
1
2
x
2
1
+
K
2
2
(x
1
x
2
)
2
+
K
3
2
x
2
2
(29)
then (26) is satised. So (29) is the potential energy and the total energy,
E =
1
2
m
1
x
2
1
+
1
2
m
2
x
2
2
+ U(x
1
, x
2
) (30)
is independent of time for any trajectory.
Nothing much changes if the number of degrees of freedom is greater than two, we just have
to keep track of more variables. For n degrees of freedom, if we call the coordinates x
j
for j = 1
to n, the kinetic energy is
n

j=1
m
j
2
x
2
j
(31)
The rate of change of (31) is
d
dt
_
_
n

j=1
m
j
2
x
2
j
_
_
=
n

j=1
m
j
x
j
x
j
=
n

j=1
x
j
F
j
(x
1
, , x
n
) = P (32)
and if the force on the jth mass is
F
j
(x
1
, , x
n
) =

x
j
U(x
1
, , x
n
) (33)
then the total energy
_
_
n

j=1
m
j
2
x
2
j
_
_
+ U(x
1
, , x
n
) (34)
is conserved that is independent of time for any allowed trajectory,
x
1
(t) , , x
n
(t) (35)
Forced oscillation and resonance
Suppose we drive our damped harmonic oscillator by adding a time dependent force, so the
equation of motion becomes
_
d
2
dt
2
+
d
dt
+
2
0
_
x(t) = F(t)/m (36)
Lets begin by discussing the linearity of this equation of motion. Because of the force term,
the situation is a bit different from that of an unforced oscillator. Suppose that I have a solution to
this equation, x
1
(t) and another one x
2
(t).
Now if I add them together, I dont get a solution to the same differential equation
6
_
d
2
dt
2
+
d
dt
+
2
0
_
x
1
(t) = F
1
(t)/m
_
d
2
dt
2
+
d
dt
+
2
0
_
x
2
(t) = F
2
(t)/m

_
d
2
dt
2
+
d
dt
+
2
0
_
[ax
1
(t) + bx
2
(t)]
= [aF
1
(t) + bF
2
(t)]/m
(37)
In words, which are not very useful in this case, when we take linear combinations of the solutions,
we must also take the same linear combinations of the driving forces, and vice versa.
In particular, this means that can we always add a solution of the homogeneous equation, with
no external force.
_
d
2
dt
2
+
d
dt
+
2
0
_
x
1
(t) = F
1
(t)/m
_
d
2
dt
2
+
d
dt
+
2
0
_
x
0
(t) = 0

_
d
2
dt
2
+
d
dt
+
2
0
_
[ax
1
(t) + bx
0
(t)] = aF
1
(t)/m
(38)
We can use this form of linearity to simplify the problem.
Harmonic driving forces
Life is much simpler if we look at forces of the form
3
F(t) = F
0
e
i
d
t
(39)
where
d
is called the driving frequency. Why is this an interesting thing to do? This force is
exponential and therefore behaves very simply under time translations.
F(t + a) = e
i
d
a
F(t) (40)
Thus we can look for solutions that are proportional to e
i
d
t
. There will also be terms in the
general solution which are just like those we found for the undriven oscillator. We can always add
these solutions because they do not contribute to the driving term. Thus the general solution will
be of the form
z(t) = Ae
i
d
t
+ b
+
e

+
t
+ b

t
(41)
where the
e

t
(42)
3
We can actually use linearity to write any force as a linear combination of forces of this form using the mathemat-
ical technique of Fourier analysis. So if we solve the problem for all values of
d
, we have actually solved it for all
reasonable forces.
7
with

=

2

2
4

2
0
(43)
are exponential solutions to the unforced oscillator problem. Just as in the case without damping,
the coefcients of the homogeneous solutions must be set by initial conditions, but that is not
true for A. It does not depend on initial conditions! This is what is called a particular solution
to the differential equation, and the general solution will also involve solutions to the equation
without any force, and the coefcients of the solutions will have to be determined by the initial
conditions.
One nice thing about the form (41) is that in certain cases, we do not care about the initial
conditions. This is because the homogeneous solutions die out exponentially so long as there is
any damping at all. If we wait long enough, only the term proportional to A survives.
Now lets compute A. This is straightforward because we are working with exponentials.
_
d
2
dt
2
+
d
dt
+
2
0
_
Ae
i
d
t
= F
0
e
i
d
t
/m
(
2
d
i
d
+
2
0
) A =
F
0
m
(44)
A =
F
0
/m

2
0
i
d

2
d
(45)
A =
F
0
/m

2
0

2
d
i
d
(46)
A =
F
0
/m

2
0

2
d
i
d
(47)
A =
_
F
0
/m

2
0

2
d
i
d
__

2
0

2
d
+ i
d

2
0

2
d
+ i
d
_
(48)
A =
(
2
0

2
d
+ i
d
) F
0
/m
(
2
0

2
d
)
2
+
2

2
d
(49)
Because we used the exponential solution, we got the solution just using algebra. Its F
0
.
A =
(
2
0

2
d
+ i
d
) F
0
/m
(
2
0

2
d
)
2
+
2

2
d
= A + iB (50)
A =
(
2
0

2
d
) F
0
/m
(
2
0

2
d
)
2
+
2

2
d
(51)
B =

d
F
0
/m
(
2
0

2
d
)
2
+
2

2
d
(52)
Now what do we do with this complex solution. We are not really interested in the complex
force we started with. However, we are interested in forces of the form
F
0
cos
d
t = Re(F
0
e
i
d
t
) (53)
8
This describes a real harmonic driving force. Now the point is that because of linearity, we can
nd the solution for the real part of the force by just taking the real part of our complex solution.
Taking the real part gives
x(t) = Re
_
Ae
i
d
t
_
= Acos
d
t + B sin
d
t (54)
Note the phase relations. The rst term is in phase with the force if
2
0
>
2
d
, that is when the
system is driven slowly. In this limit, inertia is irrelevant, and the mass just moves along with the
driving force.
If
2
0
<
2
d
, when the system is driven rapidly, the rst term is 180

out of phase with the force.

In this limit, inertia dominates.
In between, for
2
0
=
2
d
, the second term is crucial. It is 90

out of phase (behind) the driving

force. This is illustrated in Mathematica le lecture-4-1.nb.
Aand B are called the elastic and absorptive amplitudes for reasons that we will discuss shortly.
Here are graphs of A and B for /
d
= 0.3, 0.1 and 0.05 For larger values of /
d
, the
resonance hardly shows up at all.
0
0

0

d

2
0
...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Each of these starts at
F
0
m
2
0
(55)
for small damping, and looks like
F
0
/m

2
0

2
d
(56)
except near resonance.
Now, look at B for the same three values of
0

0

d

2
0
0
............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
9
Notice that as the /
0
decreases, the resonance gets sharper and the effect of the B term is
more and more concentrated near the resonance.
Energy in the driven oscillator
To see why A and B in (51) and (52) are called the elastic and absorptive amplitudes, consider
the work done by the driving force. The power, P(t), which is the work per unit time done by the
driving force, is the force times the velocity of the system on which it acts
P(t) = F(t) x(t) = F
0
cos
d
t

t
(Acos
d
t + B sin
d
t) (57)
Note that the power is a nonlinear function. For example, if F
0
doubles, both F(t) and x(t) double,
so the power quadruples. Because of this nonlinearity, we cannot use the complex form for x(t)
because we could get contributions to the power from both the real and imaginary part, which
is not what we want physically. We must use real form for x(t), which is what we have done.
Continuing,
= P(t) = F
0
cos
d
t (
d
Asin
d
t +
d
B cos
d
t) (58)
= F
0

d
Acos
d
t sin
d
t + F
0

d
B cos
2

d
t (59)
The rst term in (59) averages to zero over a complete half-period of oscillation because
cos
d
t sin
d
t =
1
2
sin 2
d
t (60)
and
_
t
0
+/
d
t
0
sin 2
d
t dt =
1
2
cos 2
d
t|
t
0
+/
d
t
0
= 0 (61)
This is why A is called the elastic amplitude. If A dominates, energy that goes in comes back
out, like an elastic.
The second term is always positive it averages to
P
average
=
1
2
F
0

d
B (62)
B is called the absorptive amplitude because it measures how fast energy is absorbed by the
system. P
average
, is maximum on resonance, at
0
=
d
. Furthermore, if the damping is small, the
peak is very very sharp. This is one good way to nd resonances.
Breaking the wine glass
The concept of energy is quite useful even in situations where the energy is not obviously con-
served. Frictional forces, for example, eat up the energy. In fact, as you probably all know, the
energy doesnt go away, but it is converted into heat, and this process cannot be easily reversed, so
that we cannot get the energy back into kinetic or potential energy. Thus for example in a damped
driven harmonic oscillator started from rest, at rst, the work done by the external force goes into
increasing the amplitude of the oscillation, and the energy sloshes back and forth between kinetic
energy and potential energy. But as the amplitude and therefore the velocity increases, more and
10
more of the power is eaten up by friction. When the system reaches its steady state and the free
oscillations have died away, all of the work done by the external force is eaten up by friction (at
least when averaged over a complete cycle of oscillation).
I will end with a demonstrations that illustrates quite dramatically the process of resonance in
damped, driven oscillation. We will do this in a system with many degrees of freedom a crystal
wine glass. The wine glass is a very complicated system, but its physics is translation invariant
and for small oscillations, like almost any other oscillator, it is approximately linear. Thus it has
normal modes motions in which all the parts oscillate with a single frequency. Each of the
normal mode frequencies corresponds to a particular way in which the wine glass can ring. The
lowest frequency is what dominates if we just ring it.
So what we are going to do is to feed energy into the wine glass at the frequency of its lowest
ringing mode. For a good wine glass, the damping is really pretty small it rings for a long time
so we can feed in a lot of energy and get the lowest mode very excited. So we will actually
see how the wine glass is deforming as it rings. In fact, of course, we wouldnt be able to do this
without some help, because the frequency is very high, and the motion of the glass would just
look like a blur. But what we can do is to use a strobe light tied to the driving frequency so that
we illuminate the glass at the same point in the cycle each time, or at least very nearly so. The
astonishing thing to me about this demonstration is how much the glass actually deforms before it
breaks. If you have never seen this before, I think that you will also be surprised so here goes.
break the wine glass
Work and Energy in three dimensions
One of the most useful and interesting applications of the concept of energy is to the motion of a
single particle in three dimensions. In this case, the conguration of the system is described by the
position vector of particle, r, and the velocity, the acceleration and the momentum are also vectors,
v =

r, a =

r and p = mv.
In a sense, we have already dealt with this because we have talked about system with more than
one degree of freedom, and the particle in three dimensions is just a particular example of a system
with three degrees of freedom. But it is a very important one, and the fact that the coordinates
form a vector in three dimensional space has important consequences for both the physics and the
notation.
In three dimensions, Newtons second law is a vector equation,
ma = m

v = m

r =

p =

F (63)
We will have much more to say later about what it means to say that something like (63) is a
vector equation. For now, we will simply say that a 3-dimensional vector is an object with three
independent components, and we will denote the component of r by (x, y, z) as you probably did
in high school, and the components of an arbitrary vector

A by (A
x
, A
y
, A
z
). A crucial concept
we will use often is the dot product of two vectors:

A

B A
x
B
x
+ A
y
B
y
+ A
z
B
z
(64)
The dot product is important because it has the same value even if we change the components of
the individual vectors by rotating to another coordinate system. Here are a few of its most useful
11
properties:
The length of a vector

A is |

A| =
_

A

A (65)

A

B = |

A| |

B| cos
AB
where
AB
is the angle between the vectors (66)
1
|

A|

A

B = |

B| cos
AB
is the component of

B in the direction of

A (67)
Now lets go back to (63). To get the time dependence of the kinetic energy, we take the dot
product of both sides with v,
m

v v =
d
dt
_
1
2
mv
2
_
= mv a = v

F P (68)
This is just the work-energy relation again. The only differences between this and (32) is that all
three masses are the same, and because of that, the sums can be replaced by dot products. This
means that in the power, only the component of the force in the direction of the velocity contributes.
Again, as with one degree of freedom, the time rate of change of the kinetic energy is equal to
the power, P = v

F, fed into the system by the force. There is a conserved energy if the power is
a total time derivative of a potential:
v

F =
d
dt
U (69)
But now because the coordinates are the components of a vector, the condition (33) that the forces
are the partial derivatives of a single function U can be written as

F(r ) =

r
U(r ) =

U(r ) (70)
where

=

r
(71)
is the gradient or grad of div, grad and curl, a vector with components
_

x
,

y
,

z
_
(72)
We wont make a lot of use of this. You will do more in 15b. But in this case, there is a nice
geometrical way of understanding why it is that a force of this kind allows you to dene a conserved
energy. The work done by the force in going from one point in space to another is independent of
the path it just depends on the starting point and ending point. This is easy to prove, but we
wont bother you will see it later.
The second interesting thing about energy in three dimensions is that we can nd velocity
dependent forces that still lead to a conserved energy in a very natural way. As long as the force is
perpendicular to v, v

F is zero, and therefore it is the time derivative of zero, and (69) is satised.
One important way to do this to use the cross product (which we will discuss in more detail in a
few weeks). A force of the form

F = v

B (73)
automatically satises v

F = 0. This is the way magnetism works.
12
Examples of potentials in 3-dimensions
It is easy to go from a potential to the force. Equation (70) says that you just differentiate. In fact,
this step is so easy that we will often talk about nding the potential by running this backwards
that is nding a U(x) such that (70) gives the force we want.
A familiar example of potential energy is the energy of a massive particle in the earths gravita-
tional eld. Near the surface, the eld is roughly constant and vertical, and the force is downward
with magnitude mg. The potential energy is therefore mg z, so that minus the z derivative is the
z component of the force, mg, and the other components vanish.
U(r ) = mg z (74)

F(r ) = (0, 0, mg) (75)

For another example, consider the potential
U(r ) =
1
2
K r
2
=
1
2
K (x
2
+ y
2
+ z
2
) (76)
To get the x, y and z components of the force, we just differentiate and change the sign:

F(r ) = (K x, K y, K z) (77)
This is a vector that points back towards the origin, so this describes a particle that has a stable
equilibrium point at the origin. This is called the three dimensional harmonic oscillator potential.
A more interesting question occurs when you are given a force and are asked to nd the poten-
tial. It turns out that this is possible if and only if the components of the force satisfy
4

y
F
z

z
F
y
= 0

z
F
x

x
F
z
= 0

x
F
y

y
F
x
= 0
(78)
So for example, the force

F(r ) = (yz, xz, xy) (79)

is associated with a potential because

y
F
z

z
F
y
= x x = 0

z
F
x

x
F
z
= y y = 0

x
F
y

y
F
x
= z z = 0
(80)
4
As you will see later, this can be written more compactly using the cross product or curl as

F(r ) = 0.
13
The only if part of (78) is easy to understand. If the components of

F are minus the deriva-
tives of a potential, (78) must be satised because the order of differentiations doesnt matter. The
if part is less obvious. It turns out that if (78) is satised, you can nd the potential by integrat-
ing the force, and it doesnt matter what path you choose to integrate along. This is discussed in
Morins book, and you will see much more of it in Physics 15b. That is enough for now.
A particle on a frictionless track
A system with one degree of freedom need not be one dimensional. You have seen examples of
this in the rst problem set. Another nice one is a particle on a frictionless track in the earths
gravitational eld. Suppose a particle of mass m is constrained to move along a frictionless track
that curves around in 3-dimensional space. Because the particle is constrained to be on the track,
the conguration of the system is completely specied by the position on the track. It is convenient
to measure this in terms of the actual distance of the particle along the track from some reference
point on the track, which we will call (t). In terms of (t), we can specify the position of the
particle in 3-dimensional space if we have mapped out the x, y and z components of each point on
the track as a function of . In other words, the vector r() describes the shape of the track, and the
single variable describes the position of the particle on the track.
........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
...............................
= 0
...............................
= 1
..............................
= 2
...............................
= 3
...............................
= 4
..............................
= 5
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
= 1
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
= 2
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
= 3
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
= 4
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
= 5
We havent learned any very simple way to directly write down the equations of motion for
such a particle (we will next week). But we can write down the equation for energy, which should
be the sum of the kinetic energy and the potential energy due to the earths gravity.
The speed of the particle is just

, so the kinetic energy should be
1
2
m(

)
2
(81)
and the potential energy comes from the earths gravitational eld,
U = mg z() (82)
so that the energy is
1
2
m(

)
2
+ mg z() (83)
If you think about how difcult it would be to write down the equation of motion and solve it using
forces for a complicated shaped track, you will be begin to appreciate the power of conservation
of energy.
14