Take horizontal, upward and . Resolve Newton's second law into components for projectile motion with linear drag:
For , let . An integrating factor gives
The relaxation time is , and the terminal velocity is . For fixed finite , expanding the exponential function as gives the continuous limit and ; the two terms proportional to cancel before taking the limit.
Take positive downward and put zero gravitational potential energy at the spring's support. The mass is then a distance below that reference, so . Hooke's law gives the elastic potential energy . Therefore
The constant term fixes the requested reference but does not affect the motion. The Euler-Lagrange equation is
This is exactly Newton's second law with gravity downward and spring force upward for positive extension. The static extension is .
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 gives
Project Newton's second law toward the hemisphere's centre. The inward component of gravity is and the normal force points outward, so
At contact loss . Eliminating gives the ideal sphere rolling off a hemisphere result
The 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 give
so acts uphill, whereas
Consequently the required ratio is
For 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.
The radial and angular Euler-Lagrange equations are
Writing the conserved angular momentum as
we obtain
A positive constant radius requires zero radial acceleration. Hence the circular motion has
provided and . Its angular velocity is . No positive circular radius exists for with .
For later use, the conserved radial energy is
The effective potential has , so its stationary radius is a stable minimum. The tension remains positive in the ideal allowed region: the hanging Newton's second law gives .
About a fixed origin in an inertial frame, the angular momentum and torque are
For a specified fixed axis with unit vector , use the projections and . The mass is constant. Differentiating and applying Newton's second law,
Hence for the fixed axis. If the net torque vanishes, the corresponding angular momentum is conserved. Fixing the origin and axis is essential to this unmodified form of the law.
Write the linear drag as , with , and let be the projectile's mass. Taking upward as positive, Newton's second law gives
The downward terminal velocity is , where
Equivalently, if the drag acceleration is specified as , then . Solving the first-order equation,
The highest point occurs at , so
For an upward launch this root is positive and there, confirming a maximum height. As , expanding the logarithm gives the drag-free result . A horizontal launch has its highest point at launch; a downward launch from the ground does not have a later airborne maximum.
Take downward distance and downward speed , with constant gravitational acceleration and quadratic drag coefficient . The printed vector square has no standard vector meaning; the directionally consistent drag force is . For this downward fall, Newton's second law becomes
The terminal velocity is obtained by setting the net force to zero:
From rest, the speed increases monotonically towards this limiting value. In fact ; thus it is a supremum approached at infinite time, and a tower of finite height need not permit it to be reached.
For the required distance, use the chain rule . Writing gives a linear ordinary differential equation:
Consequently,
Here has units of inverse length, so the result has the required units of distance and is independent of the falling mass.
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 inertia
where 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. Then
Substituting into the kinetic energy equation gives
Discarding the zero-impulse branch , the actual collision gives
The 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 motion
At the horizontal, , so the rod immediately swings back. Conservation of mechanical energy yields
On the initial descent its explicit time dependence is specified by the definite integral
It 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. Then
This 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 , so
The 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.
Axis theorems. The parallel axis theorem states
where is the moment of inertia about an axis through the centre of mass, is about a parallel axis, is the body's total mass, and is the perpendicular separation of the axes. Expanding proves the result because at the centre of mass. The perpendicular axis theorem applies to a planar lamina in the plane:
All three axes meet at the same point, lie in the lamina and is normal to it; the identity follows from being the squared distance to the axis. It is not a theorem for an arbitrary three-dimensional body.
Cylinder integrals. Put the cylinder's midpoint at and its symmetry axis along . Its uniform mass density is . The transverse moment of inertia of a uniform solid cylinder about the axis is
Equivalently each thin circular slice has diametral moment of inertia , by the perpendicular axis theorem and symmetry, and shifting it by adds . The parallel axis theorem then gives the transverse end-axis moment of inertia:
The axial moment of inertia of a uniform solid cylinder is . Equating it to gives
Here the source's principal axis means the cylinder's symmetry axis; its transverse centre axes are also principal axes. This equality describes a short cylinder rather than the thin-rod limit.
Hammer dynamics and forces. Treat the compact head as a point mass and neglect its intrinsic moment of inertia. Let be the displacement from downward vertical, and let point along the rod from pivot to head, with in the direction of increasing . Define
The two external weights and act at distances and from the pivot. The frictionless pivot supplies a reaction but no torque about its axis. The total restoring torque and rotational equation of motion are
For completeness, Newton's second law for the centre of mass gives both components of the pivot force:
The negative radial component points towards the pivot. These follow from the centre of mass acceleration and the total weight . They specify the external forces even when the oscillation is not small.
With the small-angle approximation, , this is simple harmonic motion. The physical pendulum has small-amplitude oscillation period
For release from a finite amplitude , conservation of mechanical energy instead gives . Integrating a quarter-cycle gives the exact oscillation period
where is the complete elliptic integral of the first kind; recovers .
For and , compare with the simple pendulum value :
For small oscillations, the hammer's oscillation period is about shorter. The extra rod weight adds restoring torque proportionately faster than it adds pivot moment of inertia.
Newton's second law applies separately to each body's total force: zero force on means zero acceleration of , while a nonzero force on a free gives nonzero acceleration of . It does not assert that those two forces must be equal and opposite.
The conducting shell is a third interacting body. Its induced surface charges shield the cavity from the external charge, while charges on its outer surface can still exert a force on . Reaction forces act on the shell and, if it is held fixed, on its supports. In the electrostatic limit the force balance of the complete isolated charge–shell system is . Thus the given situation is consistent with both Newton's second law and Newton's third law once the shell is included.
Shielding removes the cavity field due to external charges; it does not generally remove the force of the inner surface charges induced by an off-centre . Zero total force on is an additional condition, satisfied for example when it is at the centre of a spherical cavity.
Let be the sliding point charge's mass. Expanding the axial field of a uniformly charged annulus for gives
Its electric charge is , so its electric force points toward the centre. Newton's second law becomes
To leading order this is simple harmonic motion, with
The mass is an additional parameter, since the source supplies no numerical value. The constraint is essential: stability along the axis does not imply unconstrained three-dimensional trapping by a static electric field.
In a Cartesian coordinate system the leading electric dipole field gives
Therefore
The force is downwards on the equator and upwards on the negative axial side. A free positive electric charge released from rest at the left-hand point initially accelerates downwards. As it moves into , the force also acquires a positive component. Its path bends toward the right; the force continually changes as its position changes. An initial velocity was not specified, so the following more precise trajectory assumes release from rest and neglects radiation reaction.
There is a useful exact result within the point-electric dipole approximation. Put ; the potential energy is , a homogeneous function of degree . Thus . For a particle of mass , Newton's second law and conservation of energy imply
At release, both kinetic energy and potential energy vanish, so ; also . Consequently throughout the motion. Parametrize the lower semicircle by , . Then
The electric charge gains speed until the bottom point, where the force is inward and the speed is . It then slows, reaches at rest, and reverses. Thus, under these assumptions,
Its trajectory is not an electric field line: the force determines acceleration, rather than velocity direction. For the finite two-charge electric dipole, corrections of order perturb the circular trajectory; an arbitrary nonzero initial velocity also changes it.
Project Newton's second law down the slope. The normal reaction has no component along the rails, while the magnetic term opposes motion:
This first-order linear differential equation has the release-from-rest solution
The electrical self-inductance has been neglected; retaining it introduces a coupled electric current equation rather than this instantaneous resistive response.
Measure both vertical displacements upward from static equilibrium, so gravity cancels. The spring force changes by , while the damper is attached to a fixed surface and supplies . Newton's second law gives
For sinusoidal steady motion, substitution of gives the spring-base displacement response with a grounded damper
A decaying homogeneous transient must be added unless initial conditions already select steady state. At low frequency, and the mass follows the slowly moving support; the first correction is . At high frequency, : inertia suppresses motion and reverses its phase relative to the support. There is no in the numerator because the damper's other end does not move.
Minimize the squared denominator . Its derivative is , giving
Write and . Then with , and the finite-frequency peak is . Increasing light damping lowers and broadens the peak and shifts it left; the low-frequency limit remains1 and the high-frequency decay remains proportional to .
The resonance versus oscillatory damping thresholds differ. For , the maximum is at zero frequency and the curve decreases monotonically. This threshold is , distinct from the free-oscillation critical damping threshold .
Figure 1.
Base displacement response
. Three light-damping levels and one monotone response; dots mark the finite-frequency peaks. Source. Details.
time average of harmonic power. Expand the two real parts:
The terms proportional to average to zero over complete periods, while is time-independent. For real peak amplitudes this is .
String dynamics. A short element of length experiences transverse force . Newton's second law therefore gives , or
The approximation is a flexible, lossless string with small slope and constant tension; is its linear mass density.
energy transport. Across a cut toward increasing , the transverse force is and the transverse velocity is . For a rightgoing wave these have complex amplitudes and . Hence
This real mechanical impedance is force divided by transverse velocity for a travelling wave, with units .
Matching and power ratios. At an ordinary massless junction without an external transverse force, displacement is continuous and transverse tension is balanced: , . For the same tension, the slope is therefore continuous even if density changes. With real positive impedances,
Their sum equals ; the transmitted power includes the impedance ratio and is not simply .
Ehrenfest theorem relates the dynamics of quantum expectation values to operator commutators. For a normalized state obeying and a possibly time-dependent observable , differentiate . Using the adjoint Schrödinger equation for the bra gives
Thus
The identity assumes a common domain on which the required products and derivatives are defined.
For , the canonical commutation relation gives and . Therefore
These resemble Hamilton's equations and Newton's second law, but generally . If the state is localized about , a local expansion gives
The classical trajectory equation for the mean is accurate when the force changes little across the wave packet. For a quadratic harmonic potential, is linear and this closure is exact for every state with the relevant finite moments: . This exact classical evolution of the centroid does not eliminate its quantum position uncertainty or make every state a point particle.
The correspondence principle is broader: quantum predictions recover classical ones in an appropriate limit, such as large action compared with and observations that cannot resolve individual quantum levels. It is not the assertion that every large quantum number automatically makes every possible state classical. Delocalized superpositions and interference can remain significant unless the physical preparation and measurement justify a classical description.
A spectral example is useful. For a quantum harmonic oscillator, neighboring levels differ by , giving transition frequency , equal to its classical oscillation frequency. A coherent state makes the connection more concrete: its mean position and momentum oscillate classically while the finite-width Gaussian profile retains its quantum uncertainty. For hydrogenic Bohr levels , transitions between nearby large have , which equals the classical circular orbital angular frequency in that model. Ehrenfest's theorem supplies an exact expectation-value bridge; a classical trajectory follows only when the force can also be evaluated at the mean position.
Put type-A atoms at and type-B atoms at . Their displacements obey Newton's second law,
Choose normal modes and . Substitution gives
A nonzero displacement vector requires zero determinant:
Solving this quadratic in gives the diatomic-chain dispersion relation with equal springs,
The primitive unit cell has length , so the first Brillouin zone is .
Take nearest-neighbour separation , a common spring constant , and one scalar displacement per atom. For a monatomic chain, the harmonic approximation near a potential minimum, Newton's second law and a normal mode give
The monatomic-chain dispersion relation has one acoustic phonon branch, with near the origin. The first Brillouin zone ends at , where and the group velocity vanishes.
For alternating masses , choose a two-atom cell of length . The coupled normal modes give the diatomic-chain dispersion relation with equal springs,
The first Brillouin zone now ends at . The minus branch is the acoustic phonon branch; its two atoms move together at long wavelength. The plus branch is the optical phonon branch; at the atoms move oppositely with a stationary centre of mass and . For the edge frequencies are and , with a gap between them.
If , the two branches reduce to and , touching at . This is zone folding in an equal-mass diatomic chain: identical sites actually have a primitive unit cell of length . A doubled cell folds the monatomic branch but opens no gap. Equal masses alone do not specify all possible spring models; the sketches assume equal nearest-neighbour spring constants.
Figure 1.
Monatomic and two-atom-chain dispersion relations, with explicitly chosen cell lengths and zone edges
. Details.
The symbol here is linear mass density, with units . A short element has transverse force
because small slopes give . Its mass is . Applying Newton's second law, dividing by , and taking the limit gives the wave equation on a string,
The derivation assumes constant positive tension, small transverse displacements and slopes, a flexible string with negligible bending stiffness, and negligible damping. Variations of tension due to the motion enter beyond the linear approximation.
Here is displacement from equilibrium, in metres; is the oscillating mass, in kilograms; is the coefficient of linear viscous damping, in ; and is the spring constant, in . The terms , and are respectively the inertial term, the opposing velocity-dependent damping term and the opposing displacement-dependent restoring term when moved to the force side of Newton's second law.
is a possibly complex driving-force complex amplitude, measured in newtons. is the driving angular frequency in , and taking the real part of gives the physical sinusoidal force. Its frequency in hertz is . The natural undamped angular frequency and damping rate are
This damped harmonic oscillator model assumes a linear restoring force and a linear, instantaneous viscous damping law.