bradley j. nartowt Tuesday, December 31, 2013, 19:47:16 PHYS 6246 classical mechanics Dr.

Whiting
jerky lagrangian mechanics: The term generalized mechanics has come to designate a variety of classical mechanics in
which the Lagrangian contains time-derivatives of
i
q higher than the first. Problems for which ( , , ; ) x f x x x t = have
been referred to as jerky mechanics. Such equations of motion have interesting applications in chaos theory.

By applying the methods of the calculus of variations: show that if there is a Lagrangian of the form ( , , ; )
i i i
L L q q q t = ,
and hamiltons principle holds with the zero variation of ( , )
i i
q q at the end-points, then the EL equations are,

2
2
0 1, 2,...,
i i i
d L d L L
i n
dt q dt q q
| | | | c c c
+ = =
| |
c c c
\ . \ .
[I.1]

Summation over i is implied. Minimize action of the functional ( , , ; )
i i i
L q q q t using the total differential,

2 2
1 1
0 ( , , ; )
i i i i i i
i i i
L L L
d L q q q t dt dq dq dq dt
q q q
| | c c c
= = + +
|
c c c
\ .
} }
[I.2]

Notice that, by the product rule of
d
dt
(to prepare for partial integration),

i i i i i i
i i i i i i
d L d L L d L d L L
dq dq dq dq dq dq
dt q dt q q dt q dt q q
| | | | | | | | c c c c c c
= + = +
| | | |
c c c c c c
\ . \ . \ . \ .
[I.3]

Use [I.3] to integrate the second and third terms of [I.2], yielding,

2
2
1
1
0
i i i i i
i i i i i
L L L d L d L
dq dq dq dq dq dt
q q q dt q dt q
| | | | | | | | c c c c c
= + +
| | | |
c c c c c
\ . \ . \ . \ .
}
[I.4]

The terms ( )
2
1
vanish by hypothesis (zero variations at path-endpoints). Look at the term
i
L
i q
dq
c
c
--we eventually want to
partial integrate that, so write the product rule again as,

2
2 i i i
i i i
d d L d L d L
dq dq dq
dt dt q dt dq dt dq
| | | | | | | | c c c
= +
| | | |
c
\ . \ . \ . \ .
[I.5]
Using [I.5] on the term( )
i
d L
i dt q
dq
c
c
in [I.4], we get,

2
2 2
2 2
2 2
1 1
1
0
i i i i i
i i i i i i i
d L L d L d L L d L d L
dq dq dq dq dt dq dt
dt q q dt q dt dq q dt q dt dq
| | | | | | | | | | | | c c c c c c c
= + = +
| | | | | |
c c c c c
\ . \ . \ . \ . \ . \ .
} }
[I.6]

Since our hypothesis treated the function ( , , ; ) L L q q q t = , the , , q q q are as completely-independent degrees of freedom
of the functional L. This is the reasoning behind the fundamental lemma of variational calculus (Goldstein [2.10]), which
allows us to immediately write,

2
2
0
i i i
L d L d L
q dt q dt dq
c c c
+ =
c c
[I.7]
Apply [I.1] to the following Lagrangian, and anticipate a familiar equation of motion.

2
1 1
2 2
L mqq kq = [I.8]

Computing the derivatives,

2 2
2 2
1 1 1
0 0
2 2 2
d L d d L L
mq mq kq mq kq
dt q dt dt q q
| | | | c c c
| |
= = = = =
| | |
c c c
\ .
\ . \ .
[I.9]

That would be Hookes lawclearly, q is oscillatory.