In a long wire away from its ends, the steady temperature is independent of axial position and azimuth. The heat equation reduces to
Multiplying by and integrating gives
A finite temperature and nonsingular flux at the axis require . Applying determines . Therefore
This is the steady temperature of a uniformly heated cylindrical wire. Its hottest point is at the centre, with . The outward heat flux is , so the power crossing a cylindrical surface per unit length, , equals the heating generated inside it.
Distinguish electrical current density from heat flux . Uniform current across the circular section gives
by Ohm's law. The local Joule heating rate is electrical work per unit volume and time:
For a segment of length , integration gives , confirming the usual resistor power. The model takes electrical conductivity constant and ignores temperature-induced current redistribution.
Over the plotted range, approximate the surface tension by with constant positive , and take . A reversible adiabat has
Integrating gives
The arbitrary fixed reference temperature makes the logarithm dimensionless; changing it only shifts the integration constant. This is the dimensionally precise version of writing as constant. Each term has units of entropy. Between two states,
If the graph had substantial curvature, the entropy differential would still hold, but this particular constant- exponential would no longer follow.
Reading the original PDF graph gives approximately
For example, the points near and are about and , respectively, giving this slope. The graph supports approximate values rather than exact fitted constants. The area increment is .
At fixed temperature, the surface tension is constant during this stretch. The work done on the film is positive:
For a reversible isothermal process, the heat supplied is . Thus
The film absorbs heat while its temperature stays constant. The first law gives the useful consistency check , agreeing with .
Treat the film at fixed material content, with area the coordinate conjugate to the surface tension in the stated work term. The Helmholtz free energy is a Legendre transform of the internal energy:
Its natural independent variables are therefore , so
Equality of mixed second partial derivatives gives the Maxwell relation for the thermodynamics of a liquid film:
The area convention matters: the supplied fundamental relation already specifies the coefficient of . There is no additional factor of two unless one changes from total interfacial area to a projected film area and changes the work term consistently.
Substitute the entropy differential into the fundamental relation:
Therefore
The coefficient of is the change of internal energy per added area at fixed temperature, whereas is the change of Helmholtz free energy per added area. Their difference is the heat absorbed per added area in a reversible isothermal stretch. Both and have units .
The definition of heat capacity at constant area and the Maxwell relation give the entropy differential
For a reversible adiabatic process, . Hence
for positive heat capacity . Reversible adiabatic stretching cools the film. Reversibility, or negligible entropy production, is essential to this inference. Adiabatic isolation alone only sets the heat transfer to zero; an irreversible stretch can generate entropy, so its temperature change is not fixed by this isentropic derivative.
For the specified increment,
Using the adiabat, or its first-order Taylor expansion,
This is a very small cooling, about . There is no heat exchange, and the film is stretched against positive surface tension, so the internal energy increases, with
The cooling does not contradict this increase. In the linear model, , so
Creation of surface raises the internal energy more than the cooling lowers its temperature-dependent part. The change in surface tension during this tiny temperature fall changes the work only at a negligible higher order.
Write . The Maxwell relation gives
Thus isothermal stretching increases the entropy. For an infinitesimal increase, ; if the derivative is independent of area, this integrates to at fixed temperature. Mechanical energy used to create extra surface is not, in general, identical to the increase of internal energy at fixed temperature, because the stretching can also absorb heat.
For a slender elastic beam undergoing small bending, assume plane cross-sections remain plane and normal to the neutral axis. Fibres a signed distance from that axis have longitudinal strain , where is the local radius of curvature. Hooke's law gives stress , where is Young's modulus. Zero resultant axial force places the neutral axis through the section's centroid for a homogeneous beam.
The bending moment is the moment of this stress distribution. Its magnitude is
The second moment of area has units , and the bending stiffness has units . A rectangular section of width and depth has , so placing more material far from the neutral axis strongly resists bending. This is the purpose of an I-section.
For small deflection , the signed curvature is approximately . A consistent variational sign convention follows from the elastic energy and a transverse load :
For constant bending stiffness this is the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation . A clamped end fixes ; a simply supported end has and zero bending moment; an unloaded free end has zero moment and shear, for uniform . Endpoint loads replace the corresponding zero-force boundary conditions.
For a cantilever of length carrying a tip force , choose positive deflection along . The internal bending gives , with . Two integrations give
This approximation requires small slopes, elastic strains and a length large compared with section dimensions. Shear deformation, rotary inertia, plastic yielding and large rotations require extensions. Adding inertia gives flexural waves with for a uniform beam, where is mass per unit length.
In Lagrangian mechanics, generalized coordinates describe the independent configurations allowed by the constraints. For particles with ordinary conservative forces in an inertial frame, use , with kinetic energy and potential energy . Holonomic constraints can often be built into the coordinates, avoiding explicit constraint forces.
The principle of stationary action makes the action stationary for variations vanishing at the endpoints. Integrating the velocity variation by parts gives
Since each independent variation is arbitrary, the Euler-Lagrange equations are
If nonconservative generalized forces are present, their components appear on the right. The formalism is invariant under suitable coordinate changes and adding a total time derivative to leaves the fixed-endpoint equations unchanged.
The generalized momentum is . If is cyclic, and is conserved. If has no explicit time dependence, the conserved energy function is
For a kinetic energy quadratic in velocities and a velocity-independent potential energy, this equals . This connects symmetry to conservation laws.
For example, a simple pendulum of mass and length has
Its tension does not appear because the fixed-length constraint is already imposed. Expanding for small gives simple harmonic motion with . More generally, expansion of and to quadratic order about a stable equilibrium leads directly to the normal-mode eigenvalue problem.
Let a coordinate frame rotate with angular velocity relative to an inertial frame. For any vector ,
Applying this twice to position, with coincident nonaccelerating origins, gives
Newton's second law written using rotating coordinates therefore contains the Coriolis force
The other inertial corrections are the centrifugal force and, for changing rotation rate, the Euler force. An accelerating origin introduces an additional translational fictitious force.
The Coriolis force depends on velocity and is perpendicular to it, so : the Coriolis force does no work in the rotating frame. It bends trajectories without directly changing their rotating-frame speed. It is absent for motion parallel to the rotation axis.
For locally horizontal motion on Earth at latitude , take east, north and up. Keeping the vertical component gives
Horizontal motion is deflected right in the northern hemisphere and left in the southern hemisphere. In the ideal absence of other horizontal forces these equations give inertial circles with angular frequency . The same velocity-dependent correction explains the precession of a Foucault pendulum, whose precession-rate magnitude is . Terrestrial vertical motions also involve Earth's horizontal rotation component, so the reduced horizontal equations are not the full force law.
A Hohmann transfer orbit connects two coplanar circular orbits using two tangential, effectively instantaneous velocity changes. Take outward transfer radii , and write for the central body's gravitational parameter. The intervening ellipse has periapsis , apoapsis , semimajor axis and orbital eccentricity .
The circular speed is . Conservation of orbital energy gives the vis-viva equation . Therefore the transfer speeds at the two impulses are
The first prograde impulse raises the far side of the orbit; the second prograde impulse raises the near side to circularize at . Their magnitudes are
The transfer takes half an ellipse period. Kepler's third law gives
For inward transfer the same ellipse is traversed from apoapsis to periapsis and both burns are retrograde. A rendezvous also needs the correct initial phase of the target: for outward transfer its initial angular lead is modulo . The method assumes a two-body gravitational field, negligible atmospheric drag and burns short compared with an orbit. It is an economical two-impulse transfer between these circles; it is not universally the least- transfer if additional impulses and very large intermediate radii are permitted.
The absence of magnetic monopoles is expressed by . In a regular simply connected region, a magnetic vector potential may be introduced so that
Its units are . It is not unique: adding a gradient leaves the magnetic field unchanged because . In time-dependent electromagnetism,
is a gauge transformation preserving both physical fields. Stokes theorem gives for a contour bounding an appropriate surface.
For localized steady currents, choose the Coulomb gauge . Substitution into Ampère's law and the curl-of-curl identity gives
Boundary conditions are needed in addition to the gauge choice. For a uniform magnetic field one convenient choice is . For a magnetic dipole, outside its source. The magnetic vector potential simplifies field calculations and appears directly in the Lagrangian of a charged particle, . In multiply connected regions, a field-free region can retain nontrivial circulation of , relevant to the Aharonov-Bohm effect; a local gauge argument cannot remove every global circulation.
An electrical transformer transfers alternating electrical power between windings through a shared changing magnetic flux. A core with large magnetic permeability confines most of the flux, so both windings link approximately the same flux . Faraday's law gives induced electromotive forces
For an ideal electrical transformer, negligible winding resistance and leakage flux imply the terminal-voltage magnitude ratio
The relative phase depends on the winding sense and terminal convention. At a loaded secondary, Lenz's law makes the secondary current oppose the flux change. The primary draws an additional current which approximately cancels the secondary magnetomotive force: in magnitude when the magnetizing current is negligible. Consequently
for a resistive load, using root mean square values. More generally the ideal device conserves instantaneous power, with the appropriate current signs. A load impedance appears at the primary as , enabling impedance matching and electrical isolation.
For sinusoidal flux, gives . At a given supply voltage, reducing frequency increases the required peak flux and can drive the core into magnetic saturation. Real losses include winding Joule heating, magnetic hysteresis, eddy currents and leakage flux; a laminated core suppresses eddy-current loops. A steady direct current produces no continuing secondary electromotive force, while its small winding resistance can allow a damaging primary current after switching transients.
Integral conservation. Electric charge cannot be created by ordinary transport. For a fixed volume , outward current reduces the enclosed charge:
Here has units and has units . Applying the divergence theorem to an arbitrary volume gives the local continuity equation
It is local charge conservation: a net outflow must be accompanied by depletion. In a steady state, . Integrating over a small circuit junction then gives Kirchhoff's current law. During a transient the junction can accumulate charge and the incoming and outgoing conduction currents need not yet match.
Consistency with Maxwell's equations. In vacuum, take the divergence of the Ampère-Maxwell equation:
Gauss's law, , reproduces the continuity equation. The displacement current term makes these equations consistent for time-dependent charge distributions, such as a charging capacitor. It is not a stream of free charges across the insulating gap. In matter, and give the analogous conservation law for free charge; total charge also includes bound charge.
Magnetic field and force. A steady electric current produces a magnetic field. In vacuum the Biot-Savart law gives
The Lorentz force on the charge carriers transfers force to the material carrying them. The resulting force on a current element of another circuit is , or, for a continuous current distribution, the magnetic force per unit volume is .
For two long parallel straight wires a distance apart, Ampère's law gives . Therefore
The force is attractive for parallel currents and repulsive for opposite currents, by the cross product rule. Its units are . This approximation neglects wire thickness and end effects; a complete circuit includes its return current. Element-by-element forces need not form an isolated Newton's-third-law pair, but complete stationary circuits have balanced mutual forces when the entire system is included.
Energy description. For two linear coupled circuits the magnetic energy is
Here is a mechanical coordinate and the signed mutual inductance. At prescribed currents, the generalized force is if the self-inductances do not vary. This positive derivative is obtained from magnetic coenergy, or by including the electrical sources' work; differentiating with a minus sign at fixed currents would omit that source work. At prescribed flux linkages the force instead equals the negative derivative of stored magnetic energy with those linkages fixed. The geometry thus determines both inductance and mechanical force.
The torque difference. Let now be the local angular displacement, and take and the section constant. The local twist per unit length is , so the transmitted torque is . Across a short slice,
Thus
to first order in slice length.
The slice's angular acceleration. The slice's axial moment of inertia is . Its net torque is the difference of the end torques, so
Canceling the common geometry gives the torsional waves in a solid circular rod,
For the given steel, . The radius cancels because both torsional stiffness and slice inertia contain the same . This ideal one-dimensional wave model neglects dissipation and additional elastic modes.
For the uniform solid cylinder, the axial moment of inertia is
The rotational kinetic energy at is
This includes the shaft's bulk steady rotation; the small twist does not appreciably alter its mass moment at this order.
The torque rises linearly with elastic twist, so the stored elastic energy is the work integral
Using the transmitted torque and end twist,
This is energy associated with deformation, distinct from the much larger kinetic energy of the whole spinning shaft.

Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project

Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
We have two killer features:
  1. topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculus
    Articles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
    • a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
    • a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
    This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
    Figure 1.
    Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page
    . View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivative
  2. local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:
    This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
    Figure 5. . You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.
    Video 3.
    Edit locally and publish demo
    . Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.
  3. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook-media/master/feature/x/hilbert-space-arrow.png
  4. Infinitely deep tables of contents:
    Figure 6.
    Dynamic article tree with infinitely deep table of contents
    .
    Descendant pages can also show up as toplevel e.g.: ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/chordate-subclade
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact