Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2003/ia/paper-4/4e/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 ia Paper 4 4E Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
About a fixed origin, the total momentum and angular momentum areA time-independent translation leaves every velocity unchanged. ThereforeThe cross product is perpendicular to , giving the invariantThe other requested transformation follows from the vector triple-product identity:The actual PDF asks about ; the TeX's occurrence of is a transcription error.
If , the translation term vanishes and angular momentum is independent of origin. If , chooseThen , and soThus the new angular momentum is parallel to the total momentum. The freedom along gives the central axis of a momentum system. If the invariant dot product is zero, the new angular momentum is the zero vector. All expressions assume a translated fixed origin, not a moving reference frame.
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