Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2003/ia/paper-4/4e/solution

About a fixed origin, the total momentum and angular momentum are
A time-independent translation leaves every velocity unchanged. Therefore
The cross product is perpendicular to , giving the invariant
The 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 , choose
Then , and so
Thus 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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