PC235 Winter 2013

Classical Mechanics

Assignment #1 Solutions
#1 (10 points)
+ zz. Find A
A vector field in cylindrical polar coordinates is A = 2 + z
and A. Is this a conservative field? Why or why not?
Solution
+ Az z, where A = 2, A = z, and Az = z. From the
Here, we have A = A + A
inside of the back cover of the text, we see that
1
1

(A ) +
A + Az


z
1
1
(4) + (0) +
=

= 4 + .

A =

(1)
(2)
(3)

Next, we have







1

A =
Az A +
A Az + z
(A )
A
(4)

z
z

+ 2zz.
(5)
= (z ) z
Since A 6= 0, A is not a conservative field.
#2 (10 points)
Consider an object that is moving in a cylindrical coordinate system. Its position
at time t is given by r = (t) + z(t)z. Find an expression for the three components of the
objects velocity v and acceleration a. Show all of your work.
Solution
This derivation follows very closely with the one for 2D polar coordinates (slides 19-21 of
chapter 1 notes); the only difference is the presence of a z component, which is separable
from the other components.
The position vector is r = + zz. Using Eqns. (1.21 and 1.26) from the class notes
(with r ), we have a velocity of
v = r = +

+ z
+ z
z = +
z.
t

(6)

However, with no motion in , = 0, leaving us with velocity components

v = ,

v = = 0,
1

vz = z.

(7)

Differentiating Eq. (6) once more, we get

+
+ + zz
+
t
t
2
+
+ zz,
= + 2

a = v = +

(8)

and, again with = = 0, we have acceleration components

a = 2 = ,

a = + 2 = 0,

az = z.

(9)

#3 (10 points)
Find the eigenvalues and their corresponding normalized eigenvectors for the following matrix A:

2 1 0
2 0
A = 1
0
0 4
Solution
To find the eigenvalues, we must solve the characteristic equation det(I A) = 0. The
characteristic equation is therefore



 2
1
0


 = 3 82 + 19 12 = ( 1)( 3)( 4) = 0,
 1

2
0
(10)


 0
0
4 

so the eigenvalues are 1 = 1, 2 = 3, 3 = 4.

To find the eigenvectors, we substitute the corresponding eigenvalues back into (AI)x =
0 and solve for x. For 1 = 1,

0
x1
1
1
0

1 1
0 .
x2
0
(11)
=
0
x3
0
0 3

The bottom row tells us that 3x3 = 0, and therefore x3 = 0. The first 2 rows agree that
x1 = x2 . Well call this p. Then, an eigenvector is [p, p, 0]T . However, we need to normalize
this eigenvector by ensuring
that the sum of the squares of all elements is equal to 1. Thus,

2
2
p + p = 1, or p = 1/ 2. Finally, the normalized eigenvector corresponding to 1 is

1
1
x1 = 1 .
(12)
2
0
For 2 = 3, the same procedure tells us that x3 = 0 and x1 = x2 , and thus the normalized
eigenvector is

1
1
x2 = 1 .
(13)
2
0
2

For 3 = 4, we have

0
x1
2 1 0
1 2 0 x2 = 0 .
0
x3
0 0 0

(14)

This is is a bit trickier - since none of these equations involves x3 , it is arbitrary; well call
it p. Then, by multiplying the second row by 2 and subtracting that from the first row, we
get 3x2 = 0, which means that x2 = 0. Finally, substituting our x3 and x2 into the first
row tells us that x1 must equal zero. Therefore (setting p = 1 for normalization),

0

0 .
x3 =
(15)
1

Note that any of these solutions can be multiplied by any complex value with unit magnitude and theyd still be normalized eigenvectors.

#4 (10 points)
Express f (x) = ln(1 x) as a Taylor series in the region around x = 0. Write your
answer in summation form, and then write down a 4th -order polynomial representation of
f (x) (that is, the sum of all terms with powers up to x4 .) Using any suitable software,
plot these curves on the same graph: f (x), f (1) (x), f (2) (x), f (3) (x), f (4) (x), in the interval
1 x 1 (that is, plot the original function, and the 1st - through 4th -order Taylor
approximations.
Solution
From eq. (1.47), we have
f (x) =

X
f (m) ()
(x )m .
m!
m=0

Where, in this case, = 0. We will start by looking at the zeroth derivative of f (x) at
x = 0, which is simply ln(1) = 0. This tells us that the first term of the Taylor series is
equal to zero, and that the lower limit of the summation can be changed from 0 to 1.
Now, we can calculate the first few derivatives of f (x) and use these results to find a
formula for the mth derivative:
f (1) (x) = (1 x)1
f (2) (x) = (1 x)2
f (3) (x) = 2(1 x)3
f (4) (x) = 2(3)(1 x)4
f (5) (x) = 2(3)(4)(1 x)5

f (m) (x) = (m 1)!(1 x)m .

Inserting this result in the above summation with = 0 gives

X
X
xm
(m 1)! m
.
f (x) =
x =
m!
m
m=1
m=1

We can then write down the 4th -order representation



1 2 1 3 1 4
ln(1 x) x + x + x + x .
2
3
4

Note that this last step was much easier than that of the example in the class notes; since
= 0, the mth term in the sum only contributes a term in xm to the polynomial, and not
any lower-order terms. f (x) and its approximation are plotted below.

f and approximations

0
1
2
3
4
5
1

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
x

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Fig. 1: Problem #4: f (x) (gold) and its approximations f0 (x) (blue), f1 (x) (green), f2 (x) (red),
f3 (x) (cyan), f4 (x) (magenta)

#5 (15 points)
Consider a pair of neutral atoms. They are subject to an attractive force at large
separations and a repulsive force at small separations (never mind the details.) A simple
model of these effects leads to the Lennard-Jones potential, which describes the electrical
potential of the system of the two neutral atoms as a function of their separation r:
" 
 6 #
12

V (r) = 4A
,

r
r
where A and are constants. Calculate the equilibrium position r0 (that is, the value of r
for which V (r) is minimized.) Then, use a Taylor series to express V (r) in a small region
4

around r = r0 as a second-order polynomial in r.

Solution
The equilibrium position r0 is found by setting dV
= 0:
dr
"

 6 #


dV
6
12
6

6
= 0 when r = r0 = 2.
= 4A 12 13 + 6 7 = 24A 7 1 2
dr
r
r
r
r
To express V (r) as a second-order polynomial in r in the region of r0 , we can write out
explicitly the zeroth, first, and second-order terms of the Taylor series,
1
V (r) V (r0 ) + V (r0 )(r r0 ) + V (r0 )(r r0 )2 .
2
The zeroth-order term is easily calculated as V (r0 ) = A. The first-order term is eliminated, since, by definition, V (r) = 0 at the point of equilibrium. We are left with the
second-order term,


6
12

V (r) = 4A 156 14 42 8 .
r
r
Evaluated at r = r0 , this is

V (r0 ) =


36A
4A 
.
156(2)7/3 42(2)4/3 =
3
2

2 2

Combined with the zeroth-order term, we have

2

36A 
6
V (r) A +
2
.
r

3
2 2
We could expand the squared term, but for most applications, the form shown here is the
most useful. A plot of V (r) and the second-order approximation is shown in Fig. 2 for
A = 1 and = 1. The curves are nearly identical in the region around r = r0 .

V(r)

0.5

0.5

1
0.8

1.0

r0

1.2

1.4
r

1.6

1.8

Fig. 2: Problem #5: V (r) (blue) and its second-order approximation (green)

#6 (10 BONUS points)

ex
. Using Taylor series techniques, write down a
Consider the function f (x) = cos
x
th
6 -order polynomial approximation to f (x) around x = 0.
Solution
We could write out the series representations of the numerator and denominator of f (x)
and then divide them, but this sort of polynomial division can be quite clumsy. Or, we
could hammer through the first 6 derivatives of f (x) = ex sec(x), but this is rather brutal
(as many of you figured out). Instead, noting that we only require a 6th-order polynomial
and not a complete series solution (in summation notation), we start from our desired
point: a function
f (x) c0 + c1 x + c2 x2 + + c6 x6 ;
(16)
we just wish to find the coefficients cn . We see from inside the front cover of the text (or
we can easily derive) that
ex =

X
xn
n=0

n!

and
cos x =

=1+x+

x2 x3 x4 x5 x6
+
+
+
+
+ ,
2!
3!
4!
5!
6!

X
(1)n x2n
n=0

(2n)!

=1

x2 x4 x6
+

+
2!
4!
6!

(17)

(18)

(we dont need to extend these approximations past x6 , since the resulting terms would
be neglected in our 6th-order approximation of f (x) anyhow). Therefore, we can write

ex = f (x) cos x, or,

1+x+

x2 x3 x4 x5 x6
+
+
+
+
+
2!
3!
4!
5!
6!

x2 x4 x6
= (c0 + c1 x + c2 x2 + c3 x3 + c4 x4 + c5 x5 + c6 x6 )(1
+

+ )
2!
4!
6!






c0 2
c0
c1 3
c2
= c0 + c1 x + c2
x + c3
x + c4 +
x4
2
2
2
24

c3
c1  5 
c2
c0  6
c4
+ c5 +

x + c6 +
x.
2
24
2
24 720

(19)

Finally, we can solve the cn one by one (starting with c0 ) by equating each coefficient of
xn . This can be set up as a simultaneous solution of 7 equations in 7 unknowns, but in
our case we can just start from c0 and solve for the cn individually in numerical order. The
result is:
ex
2x3 x4 3x5 19x6
.
(20)
1 + x + x2 +
+
+
+
cos x
3
2
10
90
3

x 10

1.8
0.5
error in approximation

f(x) and 6thorder approximation

1.6
1.4
1.2
1

0.5

1
0.8
0.5

0
x

0.5

1.5
0.5

0
x

0.5

Fig. 3: Problem #6: (left) f(x) (blue) and its approximation (green); the curves are virtually
indistinguishable. (right) the error in the approximation...as you may have anticipated, its a
7th-order polynomial, since the first 6 orders are accounted for in our approximation.