Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2011/ii/paper-3/9c/solution

Noether theorem associates a conserved quantity to a continuous symmetry of the Lagrangian (with the usual boundary-term correction if the Lagrangian changes by a total derivative). The angles and are cyclic coordinates, so for the heavy symmetric top
Time-translation symmetry gives conserved energy, whose Hamiltonian expression is
It is quadratic in the momenta; . Eliminating the cyclic velocities and putting , so , yields
The first term has degree three and the second degree two, displaying the cubic governing nutation.

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