Keep the problem's one-mole convention throughout. The excluded-volume parameter represents the loss of available translational volume due to short-range repulsion; it is an effective covolume, not simply the literal molecular material volume. The attraction parameter reduces the pressure below its purely repulsive value. In a mean-field picture, interaction energy is proportional to pair density, so the attractive free-energy contribution scales as for one mole and the pressure correction as . Equivalently, molecular cohesive forces and the number striking a wall each supply a density factor. These parameters approximate microscopic correlations rather than measuring every pair potential exactly.
At fixed temperature, . Substituting and integrating gives the isothermal free-energy change of a Van der Waals gas
The arbitrary temperature-only term cancels. The internal-energy derivative is instead
Expansion raises the attractive internal energy toward zero. As a check, the entropy change is , so . Constant and a homogeneous branch with are assumed. If a subcritical equilibrium path crosses coexistence, a Maxwell construction replaces the unstable homogeneous continuation; the displayed integral is the direct equation-of-state result, not a claim that such a continuation is physically stable.
At the Van der Waals critical point, the critical isotherm has a stationary inflection:
Equating the resulting expressions for gives , hence
In reduced variables , the critical curve is : it decreases through with zero first and second derivative, rather than having separate liquid/gas turning points at the critical temperature.
Figure 1.
Critical Van der Waals isotherm
. Details.
For a steady thin-wire electric current, the Biot-Savart law is
where the source element follows positive current. For a circular loop, source points are and the observer is . Their cross product with has axial component ; transverse components integrate to zero. Thus the on-axis magnetic field of a circular current loop, multiplied by the number of coincident turns, is
Take positive current counterclockwise as seen from . magnetic field lines pass upward through the loop and return around its exterior, closing rather than terminating. They fan outward above its centre and converge below it. The original numerical Biot-Savart law integration below illustrates these directions; the wire singularities are masked.
Figure 1.
Original circular-loop magnetic field lines in a meridional cross-section
. Details.
The axisymmetric magnetic field near a regular axis follows from Gauss's law for magnetism. In cylindrical coordinates, regularity gives , while symmetry gives . Integrate from the axis:
A formal term is excluded by regularity. For the axial field decreases upward, so the radial component is outward, consistent with the sketch.
On the small receiving coil, . The Lorentz force has axial component . Contributions from the axial field cancel radially around the loop. Therefore
With both currents giving magnetic dipole moments along and , this is attraction. Reversing one current reverses the force. The small coil has , so the result is exactly the leading magnetic dipole force . Equivalently . The approximation requires and negligible variation over the receiving coil; corrections begin at relative order .
Use the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation for a uniform slender elastic beam, small deflection and small slope, neglecting axial tension, shear deformation, rotational inertia of a cross-section and damping. Let be Young's modulus, the second moment of area about the neutral axis, and the mass per unit length. If density instead denotes mass per volume, replace this by . The bending stiffness is ; the small-slope curvature is . The bending and kinetic energies are
Twice integrating the variation of by parts gives the restoring load per unit length. Newton's second law therefore gives
At a pivot, displacement is fixed but slope is free; zero end bending moment gives . This also follows from the natural boundary term in the variation.
With separation of variables, gives
Choose the time normalization . Initial rest removes the sine time term, so . The spatial characteristic roots are , giving
The two conditions at give and , hence . At , addition and subtraction of give and . Nontrivial positive-frequency modes therefore have and . Thus the simply supported beam normal modes are
The zero-frequency cubic solution also vanishes under these four endpoint conditions, so is not an additional mode.
For the specified release, small slope requires . Expand the initial deflection in the Fourier sine series. Its coefficients are
Writing , the resulting motion is
Only odd normal modes occur because the initial profile is symmetric about the midpoint, and their amplitudes decrease as . The frequencies grow as , so the motion is dispersive and is not a single shape multiplied by one cosine. Nevertheless the ideal undamped solution is exactly periodic with period . At all odd-mode cosines vanish, so the bar is instantaneously straight; at it has the opposite initial deflection. The first mode dominates displacement, with third-mode amplitude only of the first.
There is initial curvature incompatibility at a moment-free beam end: the prescribed parabola has , whereas a moment-free pivot requires zero curvature at an endpoint. Therefore the data do not define a classical solution with curvature continuous through the two end-time corners. They do define a finite-energy weak solution after release of the forces or end moments that prepared the initial shape. The sine expansion represents that solution: its displacement reproduces the initial parabola, each mode satisfies the released endpoint conditions, and gives finite bending energy. One must not differentiate the initial series twice at its endpoints and assign the interior parabola's curvature there. This qualification leaves the modal displacement prediction intact.
Figure 1.
Original modal evolution after releasing a parabolic elastic beam deflection
. Details.
Let a frame's origin have inertial acceleration and its axes rotate with angular velocity . For position and velocity measured in that frame, Newton's law becomes
The extra terms are translational, Coriolis, Euler and centrifugal inertial forces. Centrifugal force points away from the rotation axis; Coriolis force deflects moving bodies sideways and does no instantaneous work on their relative motion, since it is perpendicular to . The Euler term appears when the rotation rate or axis changes.
For constant , centrifugal force has potential . It can be combined with a conservative real potential to find rotating-frame equilibria. The Coriolis term remains velocity dependent. These forces arise from describing acceleration in a noninertial frame; they are not additional interactions between bodies. They are essential for trajectories on rotating apparatus and for large-scale terrestrial motions. Frame-dependent terms must be included consistently with the chosen coordinates.
For conservative forces and ideal constraints that do no work, mechanical energy is constant. Work-energy balance remains useful with nonconservative forces: their power gives . In one dimension,
locates accessible regions and turning points, and reduces the trajectory to a quadrature . A local minimum of potential is a stable equilibrium; a local maximum is unstable. Near a nondegenerate minimum, gives .
For a central force, conserved angular momentum reduces radial motion to an effective potential . Its extrema determine circular orbits and their radial stability. In several coordinates, small oscillations follow from the kinetic-energy mass matrix and potential Hessian through .
Energy is also central to the Lagrangian and the Euler-Lagrange equations. A time-independent natural mechanical system has conserved energy; cyclic coordinates yield additional momenta. Energy alone does not normally determine every coordinate of a multi-degree-of-freedom motion. Its value is to expose allowed motion, stability and reductions before solving the full differential equations.
The image charge construction replaces conductor-induced charge by fictitious sources outside the physical domain. Match the conductor potentials and the far-field condition; uniqueness then fixes the potential in the physical region. For a grounded plane, reflect a charge and reverse its sign, giving attraction . For a grounded sphere of radius , a charge at distance has image at radial distance . These are examples with prescribed zero potential, not arbitrary isolated conductors.[ref]
Use horizontal and upward in the upper right-angle wedge. The sheets meet electrically, so take their common potential as zero and assume no externally imposed field. For a real charge at , the image charges in a right-angle conducting wedge are at and , and at . The first two contributions have cancelling horizontal components. With ,
Thus the force magnitude at the original height is , directed down toward the intersection. The sphere is treated as a point charge, with size much smaller than its distances from the sheets.
Since gravity is already balanced in the uncharged equilibrium, the charged vertical equilibrium satisfies . For , . Differentiating the force gives
The electrostatic softening above a conducting wedge reduces the restoring force; the small-charge vertical equilibrium remains stable.
For the lateral stability of a spring-supported charge in a wedge, the off-axis images of are at and and at . Expansion near the bisector gives
So the electrostatic force is laterally destabilizing: moving toward either sheet strengthens its attraction. In the simplified model where the spring supplies only a vertical force, the overall equilibrium is a saddle and is unstable.
A three-dimensional spring suspension also has geometrical transverse stiffness. If its charged-equilibrium tension is and length is , a small sideways displacement gives spring force , with . The full stability conditions in this suspension model are
Motion parallel to the intersection line has no electrostatic stiffness in the ideal infinite-wedge geometry and is stabilized by the positive spring tension. Thus lateral electrostatic destabilization alone does not prove instability of a real hanging spring. At fixed finite support geometry, a sufficiently small charge preserves stability because while . The given vertical-displacement approximation does not specify the attachment length or by itself establish the transverse inequality for an arbitrary charge. The general criterion above states what can be concluded; the saddle verdict applies to the distinct idealization with zero lateral support stiffness.
Figure 1.
Original image-charge field construction and the opposite signs of vertical softening and lateral electrostatic stiffness
. Details.
For a moving loop, Faraday's law of induction is , where is the local wire velocity, , and the oriented boundary and surface follow the right-hand rule. For a fixed loop the motional term vanishes. Lenz's law is the minus sign: the induced response opposes the change of linked flux, not necessarily the applied field itself.
Let increase downhill and choose positive current to produce an uphill magnetic force. The normal component of the imposed field is , so the changing external flux is . With initially zero current and no resistance, conservation of flux linkage gives . The rod feels gravity vertically downward, a rail reaction normal to the slope, and magnetic force of magnitude horizontally uphill. Its downhill component is ; its normal component presses the rod into the rails, giving .
The inductive oscillation of a sliding rod on inclined rails follows from
The magnetic force is not itself parallel to the rails. Defining and , release from rest gives
The first stop occurs at ; the rod then returns and oscillates between and . At the force is zero but the speed is maximal. Mechanical potential energy is reversibly exchanged with kinetic energy and ; a perfectly conducting circuit provides no damping.
For the resistive long-time drift of an inductive sliding rod, with loop resistance , use
Joule heating damps the transient oscillation. On sufficiently long rails the asymptotic motion is steady sliding, not permanent rest:
The zero-resistance model has persistent oscillations; its late-time limit cannot be interchanged with taking . These results assume , smooth contacts, negligible rod self-inductance and constant geometry.
Figure 1.
Original rod force resolution and calculated ideal inductive oscillation along the slope
. Details.
A fictitious force is a term required when writing Newton's second law in an accelerating frame; it comes from the coordinate choice rather than a new interaction. For axes rotating at constant about a fixed inertial origin,
Apply this identity twice to position to get . Moving the last two terms to the right of gives the stated Coriolis and centrifugal forces. An accelerating origin or changing rotation rate would add further terms.
A slowly rotating fluid planet follows an equipotential of gravitational plus centrifugal potential. The centrifugal potential is , most negative at the equator. An outward equatorial shift raises gravitational potential and restores the balance, producing an oblate figure. Self-gravity also changes with the shape; no flattening coefficient follows from rotation alone without a density model.
Using local north and radial-up unit vectors, the centrifugal acceleration on a stationary mass is
It points away from the rotation axis: upward and equatorward, at angle to radial up in the northern hemisphere. Its vertical fraction of gravitational force is
using a day for this approximate number. The resultant effective weight tilts equatorward relative to radial down. A plumb-defined local vertical already follows effective gravity; the component calculation uses the spherical radial vertical. A supported stationary mass of course has zero net acceleration.
For the Coriolis deflection of vertical launch and drop, retain only first order in , use effective constant , and neglect horizontal velocities in the Coriolis term as instructed. With east positive, vertical velocity gives and no northward acceleration. For launch, and the flight time is . Integrating with zero initial horizontal velocity gives
The landing is westward. The westward velocity accumulated on ascent is only recovered on descent, so the two displacement contributions do not cancel.
For release from rest at , , , and . Thus
The drop lands eastward with one quarter the launch-return displacement magnitude. North–south corrections from horizontal Coriolis coupling are beyond the retained approximation.
Figure 1.
Original centrifugal geometry and opposite east–west deflections for launch-return and drop trajectories
. Details.
The shell theorem gives enclosed halo mass . Define . Then . Interior to the uniform halo its potential energy may be written
Outer shells alter the additive constant, not this interior force. An actually infinite uniform mass distribution has no finite potential referenced to infinity; only local potential differences are needed here.
The central force has zero torque, so is conserved and the motion is planar. With , the effective radial potential and equation are
For circular radius , gives
Set at fixed . The derivative of the right-hand side at equilibrium is , so
Both frequencies are positive, but radial and azimuthal motion no longer close with the Kepler ratio. At first order in eccentricity , one may write and . For a weak halo this is a nearly Keplerian ellipse whose apsis rotates at angular rate .
Put and . Expansion yields
The precession is retrograde. In cycles per unit time the precession frequency is ; per radial period the apsidal shift is . This weak-halo interpretation avoids confusing a focus-centred Kepler ellipse with the centred ellipse of a purely harmonic potential.
Locally, zero curl permits ; for a global single-valued potential the circulation around every noncontractible loop must also vanish. incompressibility gives . The exterior of a cylinder is multiply connected, so local irrotationality alone does not exclude a circulating solution.
For inviscid constant-density flow under conservative gravity, Euler's equation is . The identity gives, for irrotational flow,
For steady flow, absorb the potential's time-only gauge term and obtain throughout the connected fluid region. Without irrotationality the steady constant need only be common along each streamline.
Use for the uniform upstream speed and take the flow along . The boundary conditions are and at infinity. A perfect inviscid model imposes no penetration, not no slip. For the intended no-circulation solution, require a globally single-valued potential, so the coefficient of is zero. The logarithmic term would be a net source and violates no penetration, so its coefficient is also zero. Growing terms with violate the uniform far field. For each remaining , the surface normal condition then forces its decaying coefficient to vanish. The terms satisfy and :
An irrelevant additive potential constant is understood. At the same elevation, Bernoulli balance with the upstream stream gives
The force per unit height is
pressure symmetry gives zero drag and zero lift in this zero-circulation idealization. D'Alembert's paradox is the failure of this inviscid model to represent real separated viscous wakes and their drag, not a claim that a real pole feels no force.
The zero-circulation assumption matters: leaves the stated velocity boundary conditions intact but adds to the surface tangential speed. It produces for positive counterclockwise circulation. Thus the boundary conditions alone do not justify excluding the angular term; an initially noncirculating inviscid start, or an explicitly single-valued potential, supplies the missing condition.[ref]
Figure 1.
Original calculated zero-circulation cylinder streamlines and surface pressure coefficient
. Details.
For steady thin beams a distance apart, let be their laboratory charge per length. Their current magnitudes are , giving force magnitudes per length
The electric force is repulsive and the magnetic force attractive for the parallel electron velocities. The net force remains repulsive for .
At a perfect conductor, the reflected electric field cancels the incident tangential field, while their magnetic fields add. Thus and has peak amplitude . Taking the zero-penetration limit, including its surface force, gives
Reversal of the normal momentum doubles the pressure compared with absorption at the same incident Poynting flux.
The macroscopic Maxwell equations, with free charge and current, are
Inside this body and . The wave magnetic field lies along ; its sign follows the local wave component. Faraday's and Ampère's laws give
Static background fields are excluded from this wave solution. The magnetic force density is along , with . For a steady periodic state, . Therefore
The result gives radiation-force density without Ohm's law. Integrating through the body gives its pressure as the boundary value of the averaged electromagnetic energy density minus its value deep inside. In both limiting cases below the latter is zero. Take as the incident electric field's peak amplitude and write .
A fictitious force accounts for acceleration of the chosen reference frame rather than an additional interaction. For axes rotating at constant , differentiating a vector uses . Twice applying this gives
so moving the last two terms to the force side produces the Coriolis and centrifugal forces. Here is measured in rotating axes.
The rotating saddle trap has potential force . Therefore
The trial solution gives
Both modes are bounded for arbitrary sufficiently small initial displacements and velocities precisely when . At equality there is a zero-frequency secular mode; the exactly stationary solution does not establish stability.
For rapidly rotating saddle confinement with , real mode ellipses can be written
They are nearly circular clockwise motions at rates . Rotating these axes back to the laboratory cancels the large angular rate: the leading laboratory motion is a slow approximately harmonic ellipse with frequency , plus small rapid micromotion. It results from the changing saddle force, not a static potential minimum. At next order the ellipse precesses prograde at . The rotating-potential model and this guiding-centre distinction are analysed in the primary work cited here.[ref]
Figure 1.
Original exact trajectories in rotating and laboratory coordinates for a chosen rapid saddle rotation
. Details.
A normal mode is a small oscillation with fixed relative displacement amplitudes, all coordinates oscillating at one frequency. linearization gives , so mode shapes solve .
Write . force balance on an outer ion gives , hence
A pair separated by has quadratic energy , equivalent to spring constant . The adjacent-pair constants are , and the outer-pair constant is . Adding the trap stiffness gives
In the three-ion axial normal modes, the translation mode leaves every separation unchanged. The antisymmetric breathing mode leaves the central ion fixed; the remaining vector is orthogonal to both. Direct multiplication yields
For breathing excitation after a trap-frequency quench, put and . The displacement from the new equilibrium is solely along the breathing vector and the initial velocity is zero. To first order in the fractional quench,
The frequency shown is the linearized frequency about the new equilibrium. Nonlinear amplitude corrections are beyond this small-quench result.
At distance from the neutral axis, bending strain has magnitude and the corresponding stress is . Its moment is therefore
The second moment of area is about the neutral bending axis and has units of length to the fourth power. This assumes a slender linear-elastic beam, small strains and plane sections remaining plane, not necessarily small deflections.
For horizontal compression , moment balance across a short arc gives . Since , the exact-angle Euler elastica equation and its first integral are
The first integral follows by multiplying by and integrating; no small-angle replacement has been made.
For tension set . The straight far-field ends give , so on the increasing-angle tensile elastica loop branch
Choosing at gives
The terminal angles are and , the same physical tangent direction. At the top, and the bending moment is . The horizontal tensile force has lever arm , so
Integrating independently gives , , confirming the height. This ideal loop neglects self-contact and thickness at its crossing.
Figure 1.
Original analytic tensile-elastica shape and its tangent-angle and curvature profiles
. Details.
The varying magnetic flux through the ring induces an electromotive force by Faraday's law of induction. Its direction follows Lenz's law. With solenoid current , ring current , ring self-inductance , electrical resistance , and mutual inductance ,
The ring sits in a nonuniform magnetic field: coupling decreases above the solenoid, so and with a common orientation for the two windings. For , the in-phase part of the induced ring current is negative:
Thus alternating-current induction levitation can balance the ring's weight when . A falling mean lifting force with height supplies vertical stability. In the strongly inductive limit the two currents are almost opposite: the ring repels the solenoid during both half cycles. Finite self-inductance matters; an ideal purely resistive loop would carry a current exactly in quadrature with and give zero average force in this model. The source supplies the Joule heating in the real ring, and any mechanical work while it rises.
The differential form of Faraday's law of induction is
By Stokes theorem, for a stationary oriented circuit it becomes , where is magnetic flux and is electromotive force. Circuit orientation and surface normal obey the right-hand rule. Lenz's law is the physical meaning of the minus sign: the induced current's magnetic field opposes the change in linked magnetic flux. For a moving circuit, the force per unit electric charge is , and its line integral is the corresponding electromotive force. Motion through a static magnetic field can therefore induce a voltage even when .
Let be the wire's angle from the downward vertical, , and choose and upward, as in the figure. The motional term along the wire has radial component at cylindrical radius . In steady electrical equilibrium, integrating from the grounded axis to the bob gives
The Lorentz force on this positive electric charge is radially outward. Its ratio to the required centripetal term is , so the stated heavy-bob condition makes its effect on the zero-field conical pendulum geometry negligible. With wire tension , and , giving . Hence the magnetically charged conical pendulum has
A nonzero-radius orbit requires . Reversing the sense of rotation or the magnetic field reverses the sign of .
The response to the added electric field requires an electrical convention. In the usual mechanical approximation, treat the pre-existing electric charge as , include its upward electric force , and neglect all magnetic-force feedback. Then
This predicts an increased radius for . It is the result when the newly applied field is used only as a probe force on the original electric charge.
There is a first-order qualification if the bob remains electrically connected to the grounded pivot and the uniform added field's potential is included consistently. Put and set the external electric potential to zero at the pivot. The external potential at the bob is then , so the charging relation and full force balance become
The second equation follows by eliminating the wire tension between vertical balance and radial balance, including the outward magnetic Lorentz force. Expanding both equations to first order in , and to leading order in , with , gives
The extra factor arises from the added field changing by and therefore changing the radial magnetic force. That term is linear in too; the heavy-bob assumption alone does not justify retaining while dropping it. The two expressions refer to the two electrical approximations just specified. The expansion requires a small change relative to the initial radius and is nonuniform as that radius tends to zero.
For an electrical measurement, route the grounded connection through a sensitive electrometer operated near zero input voltage, and integrate the charging electric current when or is changed. Starting with the field off, the transferred electric charge is in this ideal capacitance model. Reversing separates the induced signal from offsets. Alternatively, isolate the charged bob briefly and measure its electric potential with a high-input-impedance electrometer, accounting for the instrument's extra capacitance and for the fact that isolation changes the electrical boundary condition.
In Lagrangian mechanics, choose independent generalized coordinates compatible with the mechanical constraints, write , and apply the Euler-Lagrange equation
Equivalently, the physical path makes the action stationary under variations with fixed endpoints. For ideal holonomic constraints, their unknown reaction forces need not appear in the reduced equations. Direct use of Newton's laws of motion instead resolves vector forces and reactions and enforces the constraints separately. Both approaches describe the same mechanics; the scalar Lagrangian is often shorter in curvilinear coordinates. Nonconservative generalized forces must be added separately. Here a drive maintains the prescribed azimuthal angular velocity .
The mass has polar speed and azimuthal speed , so its kinetic energy is . The elastic potential energy is , and the height is , giving gravitational potential energy . Therefore
and the Euler-Lagrange equation gives
For , define and , so . Near zero,
When the upright equilibrium is linearly stable and the small oscillations have .
For , the graph of initially rises, whereas . There must therefore be a zero inside the interval. More strongly, for ,
is strictly decreasing: decreases and increases because . The ratio goes from to , giving exactly one zero in that interval. At the zero, , so it is a stable equilibrium. The rotating torsion-stabilized inverted pendulum also has a symmetric stable angle if both signs of tilt are permitted.
Figure 1.
Acceleration curves after the upright instability and the quartic potential at the threshold
. Details.
At , setting gives , so
For , the linearized equation is . Since ,
At the threshold the linear restoring term vanishes, but the cubic term remains:
The upright state remains nonlinearly stable, with no nonzero infinitesimal harmonic frequency. Small finite disturbances produce quartic oscillator motion whose frequency is proportional to its small angular amplitude; its period tends to infinity as that amplitude tends to zero. Zero linear stiffness is not the same as an absent restoring torque.
A stationary person relative to the rim has centripetal acceleration . If is a signed walking speed relative to the rim, the inertial tangential speed is , so the inward normal reaction satisfies
Consequently the support force per mass, and hence apparent weight, is for and zero for . In the latter case the walker has zero inertial speed and needs no centripetal support; ordinary weight-bearing contact cannot be assumed to persist without a restraint. For artificial gravity in a rotating ring, the centrifugal force and the Coriolis force alone are insufficient: the walker also has relative-path centripetal acceleration . Omitting it would give the wrong apparent weights at these large walking speeds.