Physics 430: Lecture 2

Newtons 2nd Law in

Cartesian and Polar
Coordinates
Dale E. Gary
NJIT Physics Department

1.6 Newtons 2nd Law

in Cartesian Coordinates
You should be thoroughly familiar with problems involving forces
on objects that can be treated as point masses.
Newtons Second Law is the basis for much of Classical Mechanics,
and the equation
has another namethe equation of
F ma
motion.
The typical use of the equation
of motion is to write
ma Forces

where the right hand side lists all of the forces acting on the
particle.
mr Forces
In this text, an even more usual way to write it is:
which is perhaps an easier way to understand why it is called the
equation of motion. This relates the position of the particle vs.
time to the forces acting on it, and obviously if we know the
position at all times we have an equation of motion for the
particle.
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Cartesian Coordinates

, y , z
You know the Cartesian coordinate system as xthe
coordinate
system, so that forces can be written in terms of their components,
F Fx x Fy y Fz z
and the position vector is
r x x y y z z
The acceleration is found by differentiating the position vector twice
r x x y y z z

So the vector equation of motion

becomes
F ma mr
Fx x Fy y Fz z mx x my y mz z
Whenever you see a vector equation like this, you should consider it
as three simultaneous equations, one for each component:
Fx mx

Fy my
F mz
z
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Example 1.1

Here is a well-known example to remind you how to solve force

problemsa block m sliding from rest down an incline at angle ,
with coefficient of kinetic friction , subject to gravity.
As always, the first step is to choose a coordinate y
N
f
system. Lets choose x down the incline, and
y perpendicular, with x = 0 at t = 0.
As you should recall, the downward weight of the mass

on the plane produces a corresponding normal force

mg
perpendicular to the plane.
Because there is friction in the problem, the motion (obviously
down the plane) produces an opposing force f with magnitude N
up the plane.
TheFx and
y components
mg sin
N mx of the equation of motion are then:
x

Fy N mg cos 0

which leads
to sin
the equation
mx mg
mg cos
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Example 1.1, contd

Eliminating the common term m, we have this equation:

x g (sin cos )

As usual, to get the position we integrate this equation twice to

get
x g (sin cos )t
(remember that the block starts from rest, so the initial velocity is
zero and the constant of 1integration is therefore
zero). Finally
2
x g (sin cos )t
2

Again, the constant of integration is zero because we chose our

axes with x = 0 at t = 0.
Notice that in general we have two unknown constants of
integration for this 2nd-order differential equation, and they must
be specified by the initial conditions. This is a completely
general situation. In this case, the constants are zero because
the initial conditions are x = 0 and
1 v = 0 at t = 0. 2The general solution
(for x = x0 and v = v0 at
x t =
x0 0)
vis
g (sin cos )t
0t
2
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Example: Problem 1.36

Statement of the Problem, part (a):

A plane, which is flying horizontally at a constant speed v0, and at a

height h above the sea, must drop a bundle of supplies to a castaway
on a small raft.
(a) Write down Newtons second law for the bundle as it falls from the
plane, assuming you can neglect air resistance. Solve your equation to
give the bundles position in flight as a function of time t.

v0

Solution to part (a):

Choose a coordinate system (x horizontal, y positive upward)

h mg
Write down Newtons
law for x and y
mx second
0
y

my mg

Integrate bothx twice,

v0 ; x v0t

y gt ;

1
y h gt 2
2

water

initial x(0)=0, initial vx(0)=v0

initial y(0)=h, initial vy(0)=0

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Example: Problem 1.36,

contd
Statement of the Problem, part (b):

How far before the raft (measured horizontally) must the pilot drop the
bundle if it is to hit the raft? What is the distance if v0 = 50 m/s, h = 100 m,
and g 10 m/s2?

Solution to part (b):

This may take a little thought, but the raft is at position y = 0, so one
solution is to find out when the bundle reaches y = 0 and see how far the
bundle moves in x during that time. That is the distance before the raft
1 2 be dropped.
when the bundle
y h should
gt 0

x v0t v0

1 2
2h
gt t
2
g
2h
200 m
50 m/s
224 m
g
10 m/s 2

Notice that we are NOT just

plugging in to formulas. We
are deriving the formulas.

September 2, 2010

1.7 Two-Dimensional Polar

Coordinates
Although Newtons 2nd law takes a simple form in Cartesian
coordinates, there are many circumstances where the symmetry
of the problem lends itself to other coordinates.
To illustrate this, lets take a look at 2-d polar coordinates. You
should already have some familiarity with these, but we will see
that certain complexities arise that require a bit of care.
First of all you can go back and forth between Cartesian and polar
coordinates by the familiar

r x 2 y 2
x r cos

y r sin
arctan( y / x)

r=|r|
y

We now wish to introduce unit vectors for these new polarx

r ,
coordinates, (r, ), which we will write
. Remember,
these have to be 1 unit long, and point in the direction of r and .
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Polar Coordinate Unit Vectors

One way to construct a unit vector is to take any vector r and

divide by its length |r|. Clearly, such a unit vector is in the
r has unit length:
direction of r but
r
r

There is a major difference between the behavior of the cartesian

unit vectors and the corresponding ones for polar coordinates.
y

y
y

x
x

Cartesian unit vectors

are constant

r
r

Polar coordinate unit vectors

change (direction) with time
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Polar Coordinate Unit Vectors

Sincer and are perpendicular vectors in our two-dimensional
space, any vector can be split into components in terms of them.
F written:
F
For instance, the forceF F
can
r r be
Imagine twirling a stone at the end of a string. Then the force Fr
on the stone is just the tension in the string, and F might be the
force of air resistance as the stone flies through the air.
r rr
The position vector is then particularly simple:
F mr
But to solve Newtons 2nd law,
, we need the second
derivative of r. Lets just take the derivative using the product
dr
rule:
r rr r
dt
r

where we keep the second term because now the unit vector is
r
not constant.
To see what the derivative of the unit vector is, lets look at how
changes.
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Derivatives of Polar Unit

Vectors:

dr
dt

As the coordinate r changes from time t1 to time t2= t1 + t, the unit r

vector changes by:

r r

r
r

Recall: arc length = r

In this case, = and r = r 1
r

r t
We can rewrite t , hence
or, after taking the limit
as t approaches zero,
dr

dt
d
Thus, our first derivativevis
r rr rr r
, so the
dt

v r ; v of vrare
r
components

September 2, 2010

Derivatives of Polar Unit

Vectors:

d
dt

Now we need to take another derivative to get

d
d
a r r
rr r
dt
dt
This is going to involve a time derivative of
the unit vector, for which
we use much the same procedure as before.

unit vector is perpendicular tor the unit vector, we

Since the
have the same geometry as before, except rotated 90 degrees.
r
The change is now in the
direction, and its length is again
d

t , so finally we have:
.
r
dt
r

All that remains is to do a careful, term-by-term derivative to get

d
dr
d

a
rr r rr r r r r
dt
dt
dt

And then plug in our new-found expressions for the derivatives of the
unit vectors.
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Acceleration in Polar
Coordinates

Starting from the expression on the previous slide:

d
dr
d

a
rr r rr r r r r
dt
dt
dt

dr
and our expressions for the unit vector derivatives:

dt

d
r
dt

we have finally:a rr r r r r 2 r
r r 2 r r 2r

Admittedly this looks a little complicated, so lets look at some

special cases:
a r 2 r r r 2r r
2
r = constant
ar r(i.e.
stone
v 2 / r on a string):
a r

Here,
is the centripetal acceleration and
is any
angular acceleration I might impose in swinging the stone.
rr
2rnecessary.

When r is not constant, all terms are
The acceleration term
involving is probably not surprising, but the term
is much harder
to understand. This is the Coriolis Force, which will be introduced in
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Chapter 9.

Newtons 2nd Law in Polar

Coordinates

Now that we have the acceleration, we are ready to write down

Newtons 2nd law in polar coordinates.
Fr m r r 2
F ma
F m r 2r

These expressions are complicated and hard to remember.

Fortunately, after we introduce the Lagrangian approach to solving
problems in Chapter 7, these expressions will automatically appear
without having to remember them. Before then, you can refer to
these equations when we need them.
You may think you would rather avoid these nasty expressions and
just do problems in rectangular coordinates, so we should do a
problem that illustrates the power of polar coordinates.

September 2, 2010

Example 1.2: An Oscillating

Skateboard
F m r r
2

We start with Newtons 2nd law in polar coordinates.

F ma
Statement of Problem:

F m r 2r

A half-pipe at a skateboard park consists of a concrete trough with a

semicircular cross section of radius R = 5 m, as shown in the figure. I
hold a frictionless skateboard on the side of the trough pointing down
toward the bottom and release it. Discuss the subsequent motion using
Newtons second law. In particular, if I release the board just a short
way from the bottom, how long will it take to come back to the point of
release?
N
Solution:

Because the skateboard is constrained to move in a circular

motion, it is easiest to work in polar coordinates. The coordinate
r = R, and the problem becomes one-dimensionalonly varies.
2
Newtons law takes F
on
the simple
form:
F mR
r mR

mg

Fr how
mgthe
cos skateboard
N
These state
accelerates under forces
F. The
F Frand
mg sin
radial forces are
and the azimuthal force is just
.
September 2, 2010

Example 1.2: An Oscillating

Skateboard,
contd
Solution, contd:

Equating these two, we have

mg cos N mR 2

mgsin mR

The first can be solved to give the normal force as a function of time,
which may be interesting in some problems, but is not needed in this
problem. Therefore, we can focus on the second equation, which on
g sin

rearrangement becomes:
R

This is a 2nd-order differential equation whose solution turns out to be

0
const
rather complex, but by looking at its behavior wecan
learn
quite a bit

about the motion. If we place the skateboard

at = 0, for example, then
0
. In particular, if we place it there at rest, so
, then
the skateboard will remain there, i.e. = 0 is a point of equilibrium. By
virtue of the minus-sign, if we place the skateboard to the right of the
bottom, then it accelerates to the left, and if we place the skateboard to
the left, then it accelerates to the right. This tells us that = 0 is a
g
stable equilibrium.
sin

We can make the problem easier to solve if we consider
R only small
deviations from zero, so that
. This yields the equation
September 2, 2010
for a harmonic oscillator (see text for more).

Example: Problem 1.47

Statement of Problem:

Let the position of a point P in three dimensions be given by the vector r

= (x, y, z) in rectangular (Cartesian) coordinates. The same position can
be specified by cylindrical polar coordinates, r = (, , z). (a) Make a
sketch to illustrate the three cylindrical coordinates. Give expressions
for , , z in terms of x, y, z.

x = cos
y = sin
z=z

, , z
(b) Describe the three unit vectors
and
write the expansion of the position vector r in
terms of these unit vectors.
r z z

September 2, 2010