The perpendicular unit vectors represented by and point radially outwards and transversely in the increasing-angle direction. Reading off their real coefficients in part (b) gives the signed componentsThese are velocity in polar coordinates and acceleration in polar coordinates. In particular is a transverse speed component; alone is an angular velocity. The moving basis, rather than any extra force assumption, accounts for the additional acceleration terms. At the origin the polar directions themselves are undefined, although the Cartesian velocity and acceleration can remain well defined.
Use cylindrical coordinates , . The velocity field becomesFor each fixed height, particles follow concentric circular streamlines around the vertical axis. At the motion is anticlockwise viewed from above, while at it is clockwise. Within a horizontal plane the angular velocity is , independent of radius, and the speed is . Both the plane and the vertical axis are stationary. The rotation rate varies with height, so the entire liquid is not one rigidly rotating body.
Use the mode shapes from part (b), and put . The initial velocity decomposes asThere is no antisymmetric component because the initial state treats the equal masses identically. Initial displacements are zero, so the zero mode contributes a linear drift and the nonzero normal mode contributes a sine:In terms of actual angular positions,The conserved angular momentum is initially and the total moment of inertia is , so the common angular velocity must be , agreeing with the drift. The relative displacements remain of order , even when the common angle becomes large. Hence small preserves the cyclic ordering and small spring extensions at arbitrarily late times. In the ideal arc-spring model the displayed energies are exactly quadratic in the relative angles, so this motion remains exact while that ordering persists.
Past exam of the optics and electrodynamics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 4 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Gauge freedom. The magnetic vector potential satisfies . The transformationleaves unchanged because the curl of a gradient is zero. For time-dependent fields, transform the electric scalar potential as as well, so that is unchanged. The scalar must have the regularity and single-valuedness appropriate to the physical region and its boundary conditions. Local values of therefore depend on the gauge transformation.
Gauge and nonzero component. In the standard axisymmetric Coulomb gauge representative for the long-solenoid approximation,The divergence vanishes since is independent of the azimuth. Inside, this agrees with the usual symmetric gauge representative . The Coulomb gauge condition alone does not force the other two components to vanish; the symmetry, regularity and customary boundary choice select this representative from the remaining gauge freedom.
Radial dependence. Write the interior magnetic field as , where for a vacuum solenoid of solenoid turn density . Its exterior magnetic field vanishes in the infinitely long idealization. Applying Stokes theorem to a coaxial circle gives . Therefore the Coulomb-gauge vector potential of a long solenoid isIt grows linearly inside, is continuous at , and decays as outside. Although its exterior curl is zero, its circulation is the enclosed magnetic flux . No regular single-valued gauge function removes it throughout the exterior while preserving this circulation.
Electric field of the rotating charged surface. For clarity retain absolute permittivity and permeability in the cylinder formulae; setting them to unity gives the rationalized-unit convention in the question. If the stated unity means relative material constants in SI, use instead. Assume prescribed charge densities in the laboratory frame and the nonrelativistic, steady-rotation model.
The axisymmetric surface charge is stationary as a distribution even while the material rotates. A Gaussian cylinder of length has enclosed charge zero for and for . Gauss's law therefore givesThe radial electric field jumps from zero to at the surface and then decays as . Its direction reverses for negative . The angular velocity does not enter this electric-field result for a specified surface charge.
Magnetic field of the volume-charged cylinder. A shell of radius and thickness has surface charge , azimuthal surface current , and the field of an infinite solenoid: inside that shell and zero outside it. At radius , only shells with contribute. Thus the magnetic field of a rotating charged solid cylinder isWith no applied background magnetic field, outside. The profile is parabolic, largest on the axis and zero at the boundary. The sign follows . As a check, the current density is , and Ampère's circuital law gives , as required.
Electron impulse when the current is switched off. Choose positive so the initial magnetic flux is along . Faraday's law of induction gives, outside the solenoid,For an electron of electric charge , treat its position as fixed while the short pulse acts. The inductive impulse outside a switched solenoid isConsequently the nonrelativistic final velocity isThe induced electric field circulates in the positive azimuthal direction while a positive flux decreases, so the electron accelerates in the negative direction. Once the pulse has passed, there is no exterior field and it travels along the tangent at the impulse point, rather than continuing in a circular orbit. If the resulting momentum is relativistic, use instead. The sudden-switch result assumes negligible displacement during the pulse and the usual quasistatic electromagnetic induction approximation; “instantaneous” switching does not mean instantaneous propagation of fields to arbitrary distance.
One can check the sign using conserved canonical angular momentum: axial symmetry conserves . Initially , and finally , so .
Interferometric measurement at constant current. Use a coherent electron beam split into two paths passing on opposite sides of a shielded long solenoid, then recombine them to form interference fringes. Keep the current constant during the passage and suppress leakage fields on the paths. In the Aharonov-Bohm effect, the phase difference due to the magnetic vector potential is the closed-loop integralThe overall sign reverses if the path orientation is reversed. The displacement in fringe periods is , so the measured fringe shift is linear in and repeats whenA gauge transformation adds a gradient whose closed-loop integral vanishes for a single-valued . Endpoint changes in electron wavefunction phase cancel in the interference measurement. The measured Aharonov-Bohm phase is therefore gauge invariant: it determines the flux, or equivalently the circulation of . In the chosen Coulomb gauge this implies , but the experiment does not select or measure a unique local vector potential independently of gauge.
Far field of the rotating sphere. Interpret uniform charge as uniform volume charge of total , and take . The magnetic dipole moment of a rigidly rotating charge distribution isIts axial component is . For a solid sphere, and , soThe magnetic field of a rotating charged spherical body is a static magnetic dipole field at large distances:In particular, . Both the angular mean of the magnitude and its root mean square therefore scale as ; the latter is . The angular average of the vector is zero, which is different from average strength. Steady rotation leaves the charge and current distributions stationary, so this is magnetostatics, not a radiative field. If uniform charge instead means a thin spherical surface, replace the dipole moment by ; the angular pattern and scaling are unchanged.
Let be the matrix whose columns are the moving orthonormal basis vectors. Then . Differentiating givesso is skew-symmetric. Every real skew-symmetric matrix has the unique formwhich acts on a vector as . Since , each column satisfiesThe vector is the instantaneous angular velocity. It may also be written .
Differentiating orthonormality gives . With , the vector triple product yieldsThe body coordinates of a fixed material point are constant. Differentiating its position therefore givesThis identifies as the angular velocity of the rigid body.
Because is the center of mass, , so the translational contribution to the angular momentum about vanishes. The remaining vector triple product givesThis symmetric matrix is the inertia tensor about . The angular-momentum balance about the center of mass is in an inertial frame. With no external forces, that torque is zero, so the inertial vector is constant. Its components in rotating body axes need not individually be constant.
For the tool, let the disc lie at and the rod extend to . The total mass is and its center is at . Axial symmetry makes the inertia tensor diagonal with .
The standard disc moments are about its normal and about a diameter. A thin rod has moment about a transverse axis through its center. The parallel axis theorem adds for a parallel shift of distance . ThereforeandThe rod contributes zero about its own longitudinal axis. Thus , an isotropic inertia tensor even though the shape is not spherical. This gives a nonspherical rigid body with isotropic inertia. Consequently . Conservation of in torque-free motion proves the angular velocity is constant for every initial orientation and spin.
A geostationary orbit has the same angular velocity as the Earth. Let and . Balancing the required centripetal acceleration with the exterior gravitational field givesThe orbital plane must be equatorial and the motion prograde for the satellite to remain over one point. The uniform density assumption supplies in terms of the specified and .
Choose the smaller disc's initial sense as positive. For either uniform disk, the axial moment of inertia is , so . The signed initial angular velocities are and , giving total axial angular momentum zero. The frictionless axle supplies no axial torque, and the pins' negligible mass supplies no extra stored kinetic energy. ThusThese equations allow the original state or its simultaneous reversal. A nontrivial elastic pin impact selects reversal of the relative contact velocity, rather than continued interpenetration. ThereforeThe requested magnitudes are unchanged: and . The intersecting pin paths make the impact possible; no additional lever arm is needed once axial angular momentum and energy conservation have been imposed.
For the eccentric circular-hole disk inertia, let be the mass of the complete disc before removing material, the missing mass, and the wheel's remaining mass. Denote the complete disc's centre by C and the axle/hole centre by H; . Assume the hole fits inside the disc, . The parallel axis theorem gives the full disc's moment of inertia about H as . Subtract the absent little disc about its own centre H:The axle is a support, not part of the rotating wheel's stated mass. Its frictionless bearing does not alter this moment of inertia. For fixed-axis angular velocity ,The missing material must be subtracted with its actual displacement relative to the axis; treating the wheel as a concentric annulus would give the wrong result.
The Euler-Lagrange equation for isFor small angles, set and . With and , the harmonic forcing of a horizontally driven pendulum obeysFor , its general solution isThe constants set the initial angle and angular velocity. If the bob starts vertical with zero angular velocity at , this reduces toThe solution remains an approximation only while the resulting angle is small.
Idealize the pole and stick as having negligible transverse thickness. Put the pole at the origin, the stick initially along the axis, and the struck lower end at , as in the source diagram. A short horizontal impulse along gives the centre of mass a constant speed . The angular impulse about the centre is , giving constant counterclockwise angular velocityThe pole exerts no further force while the stick moves clear of it. Let . The trailing upper end has coordinatesThe pole can lie on the translating straight stick again only when the stick becomes horizontal: for other orientations, its intersection with is the moving midpoint . At the first horizontal orientation, , the trailing end is atConsequently the grazing clearance of an impulsively struck rod occurs atFor the whole stick has passed the pole by its first horizontal orientation, and the continually advancing centre makes all later passes safe. Equality is the limiting grazing contact of the endpoint; strict avoidance requires the strict inequality. If , the pole lies within the stick at that first horizontal pass, so contact occurs before the freely moving trailing end can pass the pole. A uniform thin stick has , below the threshold: sufficient mass near the ends is needed to increase its moment of inertia and reduce the rotation relative to translation.
Fixed-angular-momentum form. Eliminating using the conserved angular momentum givesEquivalently, the polar motion has effective potentialFor the steady conical pendulum at , , soThe sign of agrees with the sign of ; substituting verifies the constant-angle result in part (d).
Period of small polar oscillations. Put , with and held fixed. This is the appropriate small nutation about a conical pendulum; keeping fixed instead would violate the angular momentum constraint during the oscillation. Ifthen andThe linearization is , givingSince , the coefficient is positive and these small polar oscillations are stable. To first order, , making the compensating change in azimuthal angular velocity explicit. The limit as concerns radial modulation of a small nonzero circular orbit; the exactly planar pendulum is a different, degenerate limit of these polar coordinates.
Let the motor's constant power be and put . The braking coefficient in the proposed formula must describe a retarding torque . This constant-power rotational acceleration obeys the energy balance:Consequently the steady angular velocity is , and the ordinary rotational frequency is . Solving the linear equation for from rest givesThe printed time formula is missing a minus sign. Its logarithm is negative for , whereas elapsed time must be positive. The terminal speed is approached only as .
A constant-power motor starting exactly from rest is an idealization: its driving torque would diverge. The energy equation has a regular solution for , although the initial angular acceleration is singular. If were literally a tangential force, a lever arm would also be needed; the dimensions of the requested expression identify as a rotational damping coefficient.
The symbols in the question are diameters: write drum radius , axle radius . For a thin hollow drum, . A rightward horizontal impulse applied at height above the centre gives and clockwise angular velocity . Rolling on the axle requires , soThe frictionless rails do not create the required rotation; the initial impulse must give exactly this ratio of linear to angular motion. For the usual case , the required height is greater than the drum radius. It cannot be reached by striking the bare cylindrical surface horizontally; an extension or equivalent applied couple would be needed. This geometric limitation should accompany the formal result.
Choose positive horizontal velocity to the right and positive spin angular velocity anticlockwise, as in the source drawing. At the bottom of the sphere, the rotational velocity is then to the right: the initial tangential contact-point velocity isFor the illustrated positive , the contact slips to the right, so the tangential contact force acts leftward. The upward normal force acts through the sphere centre and produces no spin torque. The tangential contact force acts at lever arm and produces a clockwise torque, reducing the positive spin. The weight acts vertically downward through the centre of mass.
During the short impact the contact impulses dominate the weight's impulse. In an ideal elastic rough contact, the tangential deformation can store and return energy; its contact force need not be a dissipative sliding-friction law throughout the collision. For other signed incoming states, reverse the initial tangential force if ; if , no tangential impulse is required.
Write for the imposed constant angular velocity. In inertial polar coordinates, the bead has . Its constrained Lagrangian isThe reduced Lagrangian has no explicit time dependence, so its Lagrangian energy function is conserved:This is the Jacobi integral , since the bead's actual inertial energy and axial angular momentum areThe motor maintaining the stick's angular velocity supplies torque and does work. Indeed , generally nonzero. A time-independent reduced Lagrangian therefore need not imply conservation of the bead's inertial kinetic energy when its imposed constraint is moving.
Let be the displacement from the upward vertical and the speed of the ball's centre of mass. Its centre follows a circle of radius . The rolling without slipping constraint is , with the ball's spin angular velocity. The static contact friction does no work on the ball because the instantaneous contact point is stationary. Thus conservation of energy givesProject Newton's second law toward the hemisphere's centre. The inward component of gravity is and the normal force points outward, soAt contact loss . Eliminating gives the ideal sphere rolling off a hemisphere resultThe radius cancels, so replacing by under the stated small-ball approximation leaves the same answer.
Finite-friction qualification. This is an ideal rolling-constraint result. It does not describe uninterrupted pure rolling to detachment with any finite coefficient of static friction. The tangential force and torque equations giveso acts uphill, whereasConsequently the required ratio isFor a concrete example, a coefficient of static friction of one allows rolling only up to about , where , before sliding begins. A subsequent physical contact-loss angle needs a sliding-friction model. The boxed answers the source's expressly imposed no-slip idealization.
Write the incoming particle speed as , its final signed speed as , and the rod's final centre-of-mass velocity along the impact direction as . Let be the signed impact distance from the centre, and choose the sign of the angular velocity so that the contact point's velocity component is . The rod's central moment of inertia is .
The impulse delivered to the rod is . Conservation of linear and angular momentum givesUsing these in conservation of kinetic energy,This is the equal-mass instance of the effective contact mass calculation. For , both final speeds are nonnegative, so equal speeds require . Therefore andBoth symmetric impact points lie on the rod, since .
Inertia is resistance to a change of motion. Translational inertia is measured by mass in Newton's second law; rotational inertia about a specified fixed axis is measured by the moment of inertiawhere is perpendicular distance from that axis. For a thin uniform rod, take axes perpendicular to the rod. With linear mass density ,The second result uses the parallel axis theorem; direct integration over gives the same value. The axis specification is essential: an ideal thin rod has zero moment of inertia about its own longitudinal axis.
During the short elastic collision, neglect the impulse from gravity. The pivot can exert an external impulse, so total linear momentum of rod plus particle need not be conserved. Its torque about the pivot is zero, so conservation of angular momentum about that point applies. Let be the particle's signed outgoing horizontal velocity, and the rod's outgoing angular velocity, positive towards the incident motion. ThenSubstituting into the kinetic energy equation givesDiscarding the zero-impulse branch , the actual collision givesThe rod's lower end initially moves forward at , so the bodies separate. Afterwards the free particle undergoes projectile motion. With the pivot as origin and downward, its trajectory is , , where at the collision. The rod instead swings about the fixed pivot in a vertical plane as a physical pendulum.
The rod's initial rotational kinetic energy is . Reaching the horizontal raises its centre of mass by , increasing gravitational potential energy by . Consequently,For the threshold case, measure the rod's angle from the downward vertical and reset at its first horizontal turning point, so and . The restoring torque about the pivot gives the exact equation of motionAt the horizontal, , so the rod immediately swings back. Conservation of mechanical energy yieldsOn the initial descent its explicit time dependence is specified by the definite integralIt continues through the vertical to , reverses, and repeats without damping. An alternative expression valid throughout the oscillation uses the Jacobi elliptic sine. Put , , and let denote the complete elliptic integral of the first kind. ThenThis is not simple harmonic motion at an amplitude of . Its oscillation period exceeds its own small-amplitude value by the factor .
A simple pendulum of length obeys . At the same amplitude , its oscillation period is , soThe rod swings more slowly. Its equivalent simple pendulum length is , not the distance to its centre of mass. The same oscillation period ratio holds in the common small-amplitude limit, but replacing the actual 90-degree motion by that limit would underestimate both oscillation periods.
Interpret as the vertical drop of the cylinder's centre of mass, and initially take the suspended rod to be vertical. The moment of inertia of a uniform solid cylinder is . Before impact, rolling without slipping gives , so conservation of mechanical energy givesUse the usual instantaneous smooth elastic collision model: the horizontal impact impulse passes through the cylinder's centre of mass, and the floor supplies negligible tangential impulse during impact. The cylinder's angular velocity is then unchanged during impact; its rotational kinetic energy does not transfer to the bob. The rod supplies no horizontal impulse when vertical. If and are the signed cylinder and bob velocities immediately afterwards, conservation of momentum and the unit coefficient of restitution giveDuring the subsequent simple pendulum swing, conservation of mechanical energy givesThe cylinder generally slips immediately after this impact, which is consistent with imposing rolling without slipping only on the descent.
Impact convention matters. The floor-impulse dependence of a rolling-cylinder collision gives a different answer if a different constraint is imposed. If instead the floor enforces rolling without slipping throughout the impulsive collision, it supplies a nonzero horizontal impulse. The cylinder's effective translational mass is then . Writing for the impulse delivered to the bob gives , and . Hence and , giving . The original wording specifies the descent constraint but does not specify an impulsive floor-friction law; the first boxed value uses the smooth-impact convention.




