Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-1-paper-of-the-university-of-oxford/2014-resit/8/b/solution
Past exam of the physics 1 paper of the University of Oxford 2014 resit 8 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Allowing azimuthal motion makes the endpoint speed satisfy . The light-rod spherical pendulum therefore hasThe azimuth is a cyclic coordinate, since the Lagrangian is independent of it. Its conjugate canonical momentum is the conserved vertical angular momentum:For a finite uniform rod, replace by and by from i. The same azimuthal symmetry then gives .
The Hamiltonian is the Legendre transform of this Lagrangian. With ,There is no explicit time dependence, so . Here also equals the total mechanical energy: the constraint is stationary, the kinetic energy is quadratic in generalized velocities, and gravity is conservative. The apparent singularity of the momentum expression at is a spherical-coordinate singularity; trajectories reaching a pole must be described consistently, and nonzero prevents reaching it at finite energy.
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