Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 ib Paper 3 4C Solution Created 2026-09-23 Updated 2026-09-25
For a general Lagrangian,Along an Euler-Lagrange trajectory,so energy is conserved when has no explicit time dependence.
For the given Lagrangian, write . At points where ,The Euler-Lagrange equation is thereforeIn expanded form its left-hand side isThe momentum has fixed magnitude,so this is constant without needing to solve the equation of motion. The Hamiltonian is
The singular Legendre transform of a degree-one velocity Lagrangian applies here: determines only the direction of , not its magnitude, and the velocity Hessian is not invertible. Thus the usual inverse Legendre transform cannot reconstruct the Lagrangian from this Hamiltonian.