Past exam of the options I course of the University of Oxford / 2013 / H / 1 / c / Solution

For an autonomous Lagrangian, the Euler-Lagrange equations implyIndeed, differentiating the expression cancels the acceleration terms, leaving ${\sum }_q\dot{q}(d{L}_{\dot{q}}/dt-L_q)-L_t$, which vanishes. Here $T$ is quadratic in the velocities, so $\sum \dot{q}{L}_{\dot{q}}=2T$. Thus the conserved energy isThe azimuth $\varphi$ is a cyclic coordinate. Its conjugate momentum is constant:Therefore $\boxed{{\sin }^2\theta \dot{\varphi }=h}$ is constant as well. Physically, $p_{\varphi }$ is the vertical component of angular momentum.