MAE 241 Dynamics

Dynamics: The Science of Everything

By Haithem E Taha

Thr, Sep 27 2018

Motivation

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 How old is Dynamics?
- Aristotle (384 – 322 BC):
- Law of Powers: “Wherever is a motion, there is a force.”
o 𝐹 = 𝑚𝑣 or 𝐹 = 𝑊𝑣
o Falling time is inversely proportional to the weight.
- Lever law: “What is gained in force is lost in velocity”. 𝑊1 𝑣1 = 𝑊2 𝑣2

Origin of the principle of virtual velocities.

- There is a natural place to which all moving objects are approaching if no obstacles are
encountered: Center of the Earth.
o Natural Motion Vs Violent Motion
- Heaviness becomes stronger as the body comes closer to ground: acceleration
- Reconciling with exceptions:
o Heavenly bodies do not follow the same rules as the terrestrial ones.
o Projectiles: Air is special in the sense that it conserves impulsion.
- Composition of motion: diagonal of a parallelogram.
- No vacuum: “it will either necessarily stay at rest or, if in motion, will move indefinitely unless
some obstacles comes into collision with it.”
- His school of thought lasted for ~ 2000 years: Aristotelian - Schoolmen
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Hellenic Dynamics
- Archimedes (287-212 BC):
- Axiom-Proposition-Proof.
- Effect of a weight P at a distance L from a fulcrum is PL.
- Concept of Center of Gravity.
- CG of composition of bodies
- CG of common shapes: triangle, parallelogram, and trapezium.
- CG of a parabolic segment: Amazing!
o “by means of an analysis which is a milestone in the history of mathematics”.
o 2015 Article on the topic

- Floating Bodies:
“If a body which is lighter than a fluid is
placed in this fluid, it will be immersed
to such an extent that a volume of fluid
which is equal to the volume of the part
of the body immersed has the same
weight as the whole body”.

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 The Renaissance
- Kepler (1571-1631):
- Aristotelian
- Tireless calculator, rejected every law that allowed the slightest imprecision.
- Kepler 3 “empirical” laws:
o Planetary orbits about the Sun are elliptical.
o A line segment joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal
intervals of time.
o 𝑇 2 ∝ 𝑎3

- First Law (Second Chronologically)

- Accounted for all the 12 Mars opposition since 1580
within 2’ accuracy
- Repeated calculations 70 times.
- Longitudes of other position of Mars are not valid.
- Orbits must be elliptic.
“Fortunately for theoretical astronomy and for the development
of Newtonian mechanics, Kepler refused to neglect such a
disparity between calculation and observation”.
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The Formation of Classical Mechanics
- Galileo (1564-1642):
- Lagrange: “This science we owe entirely to the moderns, and Galileo
is the one who laid its first foundations”.
- At the age of 25, the chair of Mathematics at the University of Pisa.
- First experimentalist
- He studied the lever, the lathe, the flywheel, the crane, the winch,
the pulley, and the screw: concept of moment.
- He studied static equilibrium on an inclined plane, falling bodies, projectiles,
hydrostatics, and Copernican system:
o He improved Aristotle’s principle: Only the velocity component in the direction of force
Principle of Virtual Velocities (Work).
o Only height matters.
o Falling: 𝑠 ∝ 𝑡 2 fortuitously using 𝑣 ∝ 𝑠
o Uniform acceleration: 𝑣 ∝ 𝑡
o Continuous acceleration: Infinitesimal increase in velocity
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o 𝑡 uniform 𝑣 = 𝑣𝑓 = 𝑡 uniform 𝑎 from 0 to 𝑣𝑓 : kinematics
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o “When this observation had been repeated a hundred times, the distances travelled were
always found to be in the ratio of the squares of the times, and this was true whatever the
inclination of the plane. We also observed that the durations of fall on differently inclined
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planes were in the proportions assigned to them.”
The Formation of Classical Mechanics
- Galileo (1564-1642):
- Time Measurement

- Galileo’s Principle of Inertia: a body on a horizontal plane will keep moving or stay at
rest as long as no force acts on it. = Newton's 1st law.

- Projectiles:
o Composition of motion (like Aristotle)
o Principle of Inertia
o Projectile = uniform motion in horizontal + accelerating motion in vertical
o “Animated by the motion composed of a uniform horizontal motion and a
naturally accelerated falling motion, the projectile describes a parabola.”

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The Formation of Classical Mechanics
- Huygens (1629-1695):
- Cycloidal Clocks:
- Cycloid
- Very interesting Characteristic
- Cycloidal Pendulum:
Constant period for all amplitudes
𝜋 4𝑅
- Proved it via ~ 15 propositions: 𝑇 =
2 𝑔

- Principle of Inertia: “Any body in motion tends to move in a

straight line with the same velocity as long as it does not
meet an obstacle.”
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- 𝑠 uniform 𝑣 = 𝑣𝑓 = 2 𝑠 fall from 0 to 𝑣𝑓
- Centrifugal Force
𝑣2
o 𝐹𝑐 ∝
𝑟
𝑟
o 𝐹𝑐 𝑣 due to falling from =𝑊
2

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The Formation of Classical Mechanics
- Newton (1642-1727):
- Organized the Principles of Dynamics:
- Philosophi Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Principia) 1687
o Definitions of mass, quantity of motion (mv), impressed force, and
o Centripetal Force: “is that by which bodies are drawn or impelled towards
a point as to a center.”
- Three Laws:
o “I. Every body perseveres in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is
compelled to change that state by forces impressed thereon.”: Galileo Principle of Inertia
o “II. The alteration of [the quantity of] motion is ever proportional to the motive force
impressed; and is made in the direction of the right line in which that force is impressed.”
o “III. To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction”.
- Composition
Dynamics of Forces
is “the science (similar toor
of accelerating Aristotle):
retardingParallelogram
forces and the varying motions which they
must- produce.”
Central Force problem and Universal Gravitational:
o Proved Kepler’s area law using a geometrical argument.
o Circular Orbit: Gravity = Centripetal Force
o Elliptical Orbit: using geometry, Kepler’s laws, and Huyghens concepts of centrifugal
(centripetal) force  Universal Gravitational and inverse square law

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The Formation of Classical Mechanics
- Newton (1642-1727):
- Universal Gravitational:
o A very long history since Ptolemy: “The fall of an apple did not suffice to give Newton the idea
of universal gravitation-rather, this was the product of a long development”.
o Hooke formulated universal gravitation in 1647 and the inverse square law in 1672
o Justification requires knowledge of the laws of centripetal force.
o Newton sought experimental verification.
o Moon orbit = 60 Earth radius  Fall of 15 Paris feet in one second on Earth ≡ Moon falling
1/20 pouce in one second.
o Newton found 1/23 pouce: gave up the idea.
o 16 years later (1682) at a meeting of the Royal society: Picard’s measurement of the Earth’s
radius  1/20 pouce.

- “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

o Galileo’s Principle of Inertia
o Huygens’ concept of mass and centrifugal force
o Kepler’s laws
o Inverse Square Law

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Analytical Mechanics
- Leibniz (1646 -1716):
- The “force” to lift W for 4h = the force to lift 4W for h: Work
- It cannot be 𝑚∆𝑣
- It must be 𝑚∆𝑣 2 : vis viva (Living Force)
- Change in KE = work.

- Euler (1707-1783):
- Calculus necessary to mechanics.
- 𝐹𝑑𝑡 = 𝑚𝑑𝑣 : Impulse
- Mechanics as a rational science
- 𝐹𝑑𝑡 = 𝑚𝑑𝑣 is a necessary truth:𝑚𝑑𝑣 = 𝐹 2 𝑑𝑡 or 𝐹 3 𝑑𝑡 can’t happen.

- Maupertuis (1698-1759):
Then,
- he told meofabout
Principle Least something
Action which I found absolutely fascinating, and
have,
- since then,
‫𝑠𝑑𝑣𝑚 ׬‬ = always
‫ 𝑣𝑚 ׬‬2 𝑑𝑡found fascinating. Every time the subject comes up, I
is minimum.
work on it. In fact, when I began to prepare this lecture I found myself making
- Euler and then Lagrange: δ ‫ = 𝑠𝑑𝑣𝑚 ׬‬0 with conservation of energy
more analyses on the thing. Instead of worrying about the lecture, I got
𝑡
involved ‫ 𝐸𝐾( 𝑓 𝑡׬‬− 𝑃𝐸) 𝑑𝑡 = 0
in a new problem.
- Hamilton:δ 11
0
Analytical Mechanics
- D’Alembert (1717 -1783):
- Objective: “to extend the principles and reduce them in number”.
- D’Alembert’s principle reduces dynamics to statics.
- “The nature of time is to run uniformly, and mechanics supposes
this uniformity.”: Newtonian

- Lagrange (1736-1813) :
- Crowned all the efforts in the 18th century.
- Codified and Systematized dynamics.
- Lagrange’s equations of motion:
“No diagrams will be found in this work.”

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Double Revolution: Early 20th Century
- Einstein (1905, 1915):
- Time is relative.
- Newtonian Mechanics is not correct.
- Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born (1920s):
- stopped the bragging of mechanics students and scientists about their science being a
model of all physical theories because of its determinacy.
- Scandal?
- No, it is the very nature of our science.

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Dynamics: Two Main Branches
Vectorial/Newtonian Mechanics Analytical/Variational Mechanics
Force and Momentum Kinetic Energy and Work (Potential Energy)

- Too much attention to coordinate system - Turn the crank.

- Fail at very large and very small scales - Consistent Principle. Just modify your
action.

- No interesting extensions. - Can obtain constants of motion.

- Constraints induce additional unknowns. - Constraints are much easier to deal

with.

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MAE 241

• Main References:
– Greenwood, D. T., Principles of Dynamics, Prentice-Hall 1988.
– Schaub & Junkins, Analytical Mechanics of Space Systems, AIAA 2014.
– Lanczos, C., The Variational Principles of Mechanics, University of Toronto, 1966.
– Meirovitch, L., Methods of Analytical Dynamics, Dover Publications 2010
• Other References:
– Arnold, V., Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics, Springer-Verlag 1978.
– Goldstein, H., Classical Mechanics, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1980.
– Greenwood, D. T., Classical Dynamics, Prentice-Hall 1977.
• Grading:
– Homeworks and Quizzes 40%
– Mid-Term Exam 20%
– Final Exam 40%

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