Professor Ramamurti
Shankar: Everything I told
you last time,
you can summarize in these two
equations.
Remember what we did.
We said, "Let's take,
for the simplest case that we
can possibly imagine,
namely a particle moving in one
dimension along the x-axis with
a constant acceleration
a.
What is the fate of this
particle?"
The answer was:
at any time t,
the location of the particle is
given by this formula.
You can easily check by taking
two derivatives that this
particle does have the
acceleration a.
So what are these two other
numbers--x_0
and v_0 and
x-not and v-not?
I think we know now what they
mean.
They tell you the initial
location and initial velocity of
the object.
For example,
suppose you use vertical motion
and you use y instead of
x;
and a would be -g;
that's a particle falling down
under the affect of gravity.
If all you know is the particle
is falling under the affect of
gravity, that's not enough to
say where the particle is,
right?
Suppose we all go to a tall
building and start throwing
things at various times and
various speeds.
We're all throwing objects
whose acceleration is -g.
But the objects are at
different locations at a given
time.
That's because they could have
been released from different
heights with different initial
velocities.
Therefore, it's not simply
enough to say what the
acceleration is.
You have to give these two
numbers.
Then once you've got those two
numbers, they're no longer free
parameters;
they're concrete numbers,
maybe 5 and 9.
Then for any time t,
you plug in the time t
and you will get the location.
If you took the derivative of
this, you will get the velocity
at time t,
it would be:
v(t) =
v_0 +
at.
Again, you should not memorize
the formula.
I hope you know why it makes
sense, right?
You want to know how fast the
guy is moving.
This is the starting speed,
that's the rate at which it is
gaining velocity,
and that's how long it's been
gaining it.
So you add the two.
This also means the following.
It is true that if you give me
the time, I can tell you the
velocity.
Conversely, if I knew the
velocity of this object,
I also know what time it is,
provided I knew the initial
velocity.
Therefore, mathematically at a
given time t,
we can trade t for
v and put it into this
formula.
Banish t everywhere.
By doing it,
I got this formula:
v^(2) =
v_0^(2) + 2
a
(x-x_0).
This is a matter of simple
algebra, of taking this and
putting it here.
But I showed you in the end how
we can use calculus to derive
that.
I got the feeling,
when I was talking to some of
you guys, that maybe you should
brush up on your calculus.
You have done it before,
but when you say,
"I know calculus," sometimes it
means you know it,
sometimes it means you know of
some fellow who does or you met
somebody who knows.
That's not good enough.
You really have to know
calculus.
This is a constant problem.
It's nothing to do with you
guys.
It is just that you have done
it at various times.
It's a problem we have dealt
with in the Physics Department
year after year.
One solution for that is to get
a copy of a textbook I wrote
called Basic Training in
Mathematics.
It's of a paperback for $30.
I've given the name of the book
on the class' website.
If I hadn't written it,
I would prescribe it,
but that is a little awkward
moment.
You don't want to sell your own
book.
On the other hand,
you don't have to withhold
information that may be useful
to the class.
I think that book will give you
all the basic principles you
need in calculus of one
variable,
more variables,
elementary complex numbers,
maybe solving some problems
with vectors and so on,
which you're going to get into.
Whether you are going into
physics or not is irrelevant.
If you're going into any
science that uses mathematics --
chemistry, or engineering,
or even economics -- you should
find the contents of that
useful.
I think it'll be in your
interest to get that any way you
like.
You can go to Amazon or you can
go to our bookstore.
The bookstore has some copies,
but they are really for another
course.
So you should look at it and
order it on your own.
Okay, so I will now proceed to
the actual subject matter for
today.
I told you, the way I'm going
to teach any subject is going to
start with the easiest example
and lull you into some kind of
security and then slowly
increase the difficulty.
What's the next difficult thing?
The next difficult thing is to
consider motion in higher
dimensions.
How high do you want to go?
For most of us,
we can go up to three
dimensions because we know we
live in a three-dimensional
world.
Everything moves around in 3D.
That'll be enough for this
course.
In fact, I'm going to use only
two dimensions for most of the
time because the difference
between one dimension and two is
very great.
Between two and three and four
and so on is not very different.
There's only one occasion where
it helps to go to three
dimensions because there are
certain things you can do in 3D
you cannot do in less than 3D.
But that's later,
so we don't have to worry about
that.
We'll stop at two.
If you talk to string
theorists, they will tell you
there are really,
how many dimensions?
Do you know?
There are actually ten,
including space and time.
There are nine spatial
dimensions.
That's why I call them string
guys.
Mathematicians have luckily
told us how to analyze the
mathematics in any number of
dimensions.
We don't pay attention to them
when they are going beyond
three, but now we know we need
that.
We're going to do two.
Our picture now is going to be
some particle that's traveling
in the xy plane.
The guy is just moving around
like this.
This is not an x versus
time plot or y versus
time.
It's the actual motion of the
particle.
If you say, "Where is time?"
one way to mark time is to
imagine it carries a clock as it
moves, and put markers every
second.
That may be t = 0,
t = 1,
t = 2 and so on.
So, time is measured as a
parameter along the motion of
the particle.
It is not explicitly shown.
You can sort of tell the
particles moving slowly or
rapidly by looking at the space
in between these tick marks.
For example,
here, in one second it went
from here to here.
Here, in one second,
it seems to have gone much
further, so it's probably
traveling faster.
If you want to describe this
particle, what's the kinematics?
You can pick a point and say,
"I'm at the point xy."
So, when you go to two
dimensions, you need a pair of
numbers.
Instead of x,
you need x and y.
But what we will find is,
it's more convenient to lump
these two numbers into a single
entity, which is called a
vector.
That's what we're going to talk
about a little bit,
talk a little bit about
vectors.
You guys have also seen
vectors, I'm pretty sure,
but it is worth going over some
properties and some may be new
and some may be old.
For the simplest context in
which one can motivate a vector
and also motivate the rules for
dealing with vectors,
is when you look at real space,
the coordinates x and
x.
And let's imagine that I went
on a camping trip.
On the first day,
here is where I was.
Then, I tell you I went for 5
km on the second day and another
5 km on the third day.
Then I ask you, "Where am I?
How far am I from camp?"
You realize that you cannot
answer that.
You cannot answer that,
even if I promised to move only
along the x-axis,
because I think--I don't want
to pose this as a question,
because I think the answer is
fairly obvious to everybody.
It's not enough to say I went 5
km.
I've got to tell you whether I
went to the right or whether I
went to the left.
So I could be 10 km from home,
I could be 0 km from home,
or I could be -10,
if I'd gone two steps to the
left.
You can deal with this by
saying not just 5 km,
but plus or minus 5 km.
If you give a sign,
on top of the number,
that takes care of all
ambiguity in one dimension.
So the sign of the number is
adequate to keep track of my
motion.
But in 2D, the options are not
just left and right or north and
south, but infinity of possible
directions in which I could go
those 5 km.
What I could do on the first
day is to come here.
On the second day,
could be to go there.
These two guys are 5 km long.
For that purpose,
to describe that displacement,
we use a vector.
This is called a vector;
we are going to give it the
name A.
It starts from the origin and
goes to this point.
That is a description of what I
did on the first day.
The second day,
I did this and that is the
description of what I did on the
second day.
The proper way to draw a vector
is to draw an arrow that's got a
beginning and it's got an end.
This is the reason behind
saying a vector has a magnitude
and a direction.
A magnitude is how long this
guy is and direction is at what
angle it is.
This is A and this is
B.
Now, you realize that--By the
way, when you draw a vector like
A, you're supposed to put
a little arrow on top.
If you don't put an arrow on
top, it means you're talking
about just a number A.
It could be positive or
negative or complex,
but it's just an ordinary
number.
If you want to talk about an
arrow of any kind,
you've got to put a little
arrow on top of it.
In the textbook,
they use boldface arrows.
In the classroom,
you use this symbol.
This is A and this is
B.
There's a very natural quantity
that you can call A +
B.
If you want to call something
as A + B,
it means that I did A
and then I did B.
But if I want to do it all in
one shot, what is the equivalent
step I should take?
It's obvious that the bottom
line of my two-day trip is this
object C.
We will call that A +
B.
It does represent the sum,
in the sense that if I gave you
four bucks and I gave you five
bucks, I gave you effectively
nine.
Here, we are not talking about
a single number,
but a displacement in the
plane.
C indeed represents an
effective displacement.
This is the rule for adding
vectors.
It has an origin in this simple
example.
Okay, so the rule for adding
the two vectors is,
you draw the first one and at
the end of that first one,
you begin the second one.
The sum starts at the beginning
of the first and ends at the end
of the second.
Okay, so that tells you how to
add two vectors and get a sum.
You can verify,
in this simple example,
that A + B is the
same as B + A.
B + A would
be--First draw B and from
there you draw A.
You will end up with the same
point.
You say this is a commutative
law.
It doesn't matter the sequence
in which you add the two
vectors.
You know that's true for
ordinary numbers,
right?
3 + 4 and 4 + 3 are the same.
It's also true for vectors.
But the law of composition is
not always commutative.
There are certain occasions in
which you first do A and
then do B;
that's not the same as first
doing B and then doing
A.
We'll come to that later.
Right now, this is the simple
law.
Alright, next thing I want to
do is to define the vector that
plays the role of the number 0.
The number 0 has a property.
When you add it to any number,
it doesn't make a difference.
I want a vector that I want to
call the 0 vector.
It should have the property
that when I add it to anybody,
I get the same vector.
So you can guess who the 0
vector is.
The 0 vector is a vector of no
length.
If this is A,
I'm going to draw a vector
here.
I cannot show you the 0 vector.
The minute you can see it,
I'm doing something wrong.
If you can see it,
it's wrong, because it's not
supposed to have any length.
But it has a property that when
you add it to anything,
you get the same vector.
So that vector is called a
"null vector."
How about this guy?
I draw A,
then I draw another A.
This is A + A.
You have to agree that if
there's any vector that deserves
to be called 2A,
it is this guy.
This is A + A.
We're going to call it
2A.
The beauty of that is now we
have discovered a notion of what
it means to multiply a vector by
a number.
If you multiply it by 2,
you get a vector two times as
long.
Then you're able to generalize
that and say,
if you multiply it by 2.6,
I mean a vector 2.6 as long as
A.
So multiplying a vector by a
number means stretch it by that
factor.
Then, I want to think of a
vector that I can call
-A.
What do I expect of -A?
I expect that if I add
-A to A,
I should get the guy who plays
the role of 0 in this world,
which is the vector of no
length.
It's very clear that if you
want to take A and ask,
"What should I add to A
so I get the null vector?"
it's clear that you want to add
a vector that looks like that,
because then you go from the
start of this to the finish of
that,
you end up at the same point
and you get this invisible 0
vector.
So the minus vector is the same
vector flipped over,
pointing the opposite way.
That's like -1 times a vector.
Once you've got that,
you can do minus 7 times a
vector or –5π times a
vector.
Just take the vector,
multiply it by 5π and
flip it over.
That's -5π times a vector.
This is how you get the rules
for adding a vector to another
vector, then taking a vector and
multiplying it by some constant.
Then, of course,
you can do more complicated
things.
You can take this vector,
multiply it by one number,
take that vector,
multiply it by another number,
add the two of them.
We know what all those
operations mean now.
You don't have to memorize all
this.
The only rule is,
"do what comes naturally."
Do what you normally do with
ordinary numbers.
This seems to work for vectors.
You should know what
multiplying a vector by a number
means.
So this is the notion of what
vectors are.
Now, we are going to come to
some important concept,
which is the following.
You go back to the same
xy plane;
here is some vector A.
I'm going to introduce two very
special vectors.
They are called unit vectors.
This guy is I,
that is J.
If I had a third axis,
I would draw a K,
but we don't need that.
So I and J are
vectors of length one,
pointing along x and
y.
The claim is,
I can write any vector you give
me as a real scale I plus
a real scale J.
There's nothing you can throw
at me that I cannot handle with
some multiple of I and
some multiple of J.
It's intuitively clear,
but I will just prove it beyond
any doubt.
Here is the vector A.
It is clear that that vector is
the sum of that vector and that
vector, by the rules of vector
addition,
because that plus that is equal
to the A.
But how about this part?
This part, being parallel to
I, has to be a multiple
of I.
We know that because you can
stretch I by whatever
factor you like.
So whatever number it takes,
Ax times I is
this part.
This part, being parallel to
J, has to be some
multiple of J.
I'm going to call it Ay.
Therefore, the vector A
that you gave me,
I have managed to write as
(I times Ax) +
(J times Ay).
You can ask yourself,
"If you gave me a particular
vector, what do I use for
Ax and Ay?"
You can see from trigonometry
that if this angle was θ
here and the length of the
vector I'm going to call by
A.
A is the length of
A.
If you drop the arrow,
it's the usual convention,
if you're talking about the
length of the vector A.
First of all,
it's clear from the Pythagoras'
theorem that A is the
square root of Ax^(2) +
Ay^(2).
The angle θ that it
makes with the x-axis
satisfies the condition tan
(θ) is Ay over
Ax..
What this means--Now here's the
main point.
If you give me a pair of
numbers, Ax and
Ay, that's as good as
giving me this arrow,
because I can find the length
of the arrow by Pythagoras'
theorem.
And I can find the orientation
of the arrow by saying the angle
θ that satisfies tan
(θ) is Ay over
Ax.
You have the option of either
working with the two components
of A or with the arrow.
In practice,
most of the time we work with
these two numbers,
Ax and Ay.
If you are describing a
particle with location r,
the vector we use typically to
locate a particle r,
then r is just (I
times x) + (J
times y),
because you all know that's
x and that's y.
I've not given you any other
example besides the displacement
vector, but at the moment,
we'll define a vector to be any
object which looks like some
multiple of I plus some
multiple of J.
Suppose I tell you to add two
vectors, A and B
equal to C,
and I say, "What's the result
of adding A and
B?"
You've got two options.
You can draw the arrow
corresponding to A.
Then, you make an arrow
corresponding to B and
lay it on the end of this one.
Then add them, as shown here.
But you can also do something
without drawing any pictures.
That would come by saying,
"I'm taking (I times
Ax) + (J times
Ay) + (I times
Bx) + (J times
By),"
and I'm trying to add all these
guys.
But then, I combine (I
times Ax) with (I
times Bx),
because that's the vector
parallel to I,
with the length Ax.
That's the vector parallel to
I, with length Bx.
That's clear.
If I add them,
I'll get a vector parallel to
I with lengths Ax
+ Bx.
Then Cy = Ay +
By.
I have to be really careful
when I said, "Add the lengths."
I'm assuming all the components
are positive.
If the Ax and Ay,
some are positive and some are
negative, this is the way by
which we have learned we should
combine multiples of I.
When I give you multiple of
I and another multiple of
I, there's some has got
as its coefficient the sum of
the two coefficients.
This says, when you add two
vectors, you just add the
components, so that if this
vector is called (I times
Cx) + (J times
Cy),
then it's worth knowing that
Cx is (Ax +
Bx) and Cy is
(Ay + By).
Most of the time,
when we deal with vectors,
we don't draw these arrows
anymore.
We just keep a pair of numbers.
If you give me another vector,
there's another pair of
numbers.
If you say, "Add the vectors,"
I would just add the x to
the x and the y to
the y and I'm keeping
track of what the sum is.
A very important result is that
if two vectors are equal,
if A = B,
the only way it can happen is
if separately Ax is equal
to Bx and Ay is
equal to By.
That's the very important
difference.
You cannot have two vectors
equal without exactly the same
x component,
exactly the same y
component.
That's pretty obvious.
If two arrows are equal,
you cannot be longer in the
x direction and
correspondingly short in the
y direction.
Everything has to completely
match.
Vector equation A =
B is actually a shorthand
for two equations.
The x parts match and
the y parts match.
Now, when you work with
components, Ax and
Ay, if I didn't mention
it,
they are the components of the
vector, you can do all your
bookkeeping in terms of
Ax and Ay.
But you've got to be aware of
one fact.
If I just come and say to you,
"Here's the vector whose
components are 3 and 5.
Can you draw the vector for me?"
Can you draw it or not?
Does anybody have a view?
Yes?
No?
Yes?
Pardon me?
Yeah, if you immediately said,
"Well, if the vector is 3,4,
then the vector looks like
this,"
you're making the assumption
that I am writing the vector in
terms of I and J.
You see, I and J
is very natural direction.
For most of us,
gravity acts this way,
defines a vertical direction
very naturally and the
blackboard is oriented this way,
so very natural to call that x
and call that y and line up our
axes.
But you agree that there is no
reason why somebody else
couldn't come along and say,
"You know what,
I want to use a different set
of axes.
Those directions are more
natural for me."
In fact, just because the world
is round, you can already see if
this is the Earth,
to somebody that's the natural
direction.
If you go to another
neighboring country,
that's what they think is
naturally x and y.
There is no reason why x
and y are nailed in
absolute space.
It's very important that
x and y are human
constructs and we're not wedded
to any of them.
Quite often,
it's natural to pick x
and y in a certain way,
because starting a projectile
near the Earth,
it makes sense to pick the
horizontal as x and
vertical as y.
Mathematically,
you don't have to.
Very important point that comes
up is the following.
What if somebody comes along
and has got a new axis?
Here is the unit vector
I prime,
that's unit vector J
prime and here is this vector
A.
And the angle between my axis,
let's say, and your axis is
some angle φ.
The same vector A can be
written either in terms of
I and J or in
terms of I prime and
J prime.
Let's take a minute to just
play this game of asking.
How do the components of
A in the new rotated
coordinate system relate to the
components of the old coordinate
system?
It's a simple problem,
but I just want to do it so you
get used to working with
vectors.
The point is the arrow
A, somebody has chosen to
write in terms of I prime
and J prime as Ax
prime and Ay prime.
Do you guys follow that?
I prime and J
prime are now rotated unit
vectors.
And somebody wants to think in
terms of those.
In other words,
the person wants to ask,
"How much I prime and
how much J prime do I
need to build up the vector
A?"
That person will get a
different answer.
You're asking,
"How much I and how much
J do I need to build the
same object?"
The same entity written in two
different ways.
If she's got a pair of numbers
and you got a pair of numbers,
the new numbers are called the
primed numbers and you want to
write them in terms of yours.
For that, what do you need?
You need to know what I
prime is in terms of I
and J.
Let's draw a little picture on
the side here.
This is I prime.
It's got a length 1,
it's at an angle φ.
I'm going to write something
and I'll wait until you guys
tell me you're comfortable with
this.
I prime is I cos
φ + J sin
φ.
There should not be anybody in
this room who is mystified by
this statement.
This vector I prime has
got a horizontal part,
which is its length,
which is 1 times cos φ,
and a vertical part which is 1
times sin φ.
This kind of trigonometry you
should know all the time.
It's not something you're going
to go back and remember it's an
opposite side,
it's an adjacent side.
You've got to know that really
well.
You've got to be very used to
the notion of taking a vector in
some oblique direction and
writing it in terms of I
and J.
How about J prime?
J prime is pointing in
that direction.
It's at an angle φ.
So J prime will be
-I sin φ +
J cos φ.
If it's not obvious,
I think this is the kind of
thing you should fill in the
blanks when you go home.
Leave a line there and think
about it and fill in the blanks
later.
It's very important to know if
these two axes are at angle
φ, those two axes are
also at angle φ.
That's the result you use all
the time in mechanics.
Once you do that,
I think it's fairly clear that
it has got a y component
that's given by cosine and an
x component that's given
by sin φ;
the x component is
negative.
This vector has a little bit of
negative I in it.
Here is what I'd say you should
do.
This is the kind of thing I
don't want to do in classroom.
It takes time and I'm probably
going to screw up.
Imagine taking I prime
and J prime and stick
them here and here.
Do this in your head and ask,
"What can I possibly get?
I prime and J
prime have been banished.
Everywhere they're replaced by
I and J.
You can now collect the whole
expression as something
something I plus
something something J.
What you will get for I
will be Ax cos φ
- Ay sin φ.
Then, here you will get
Ay cos φ +
Ax sin φ.
This is the only part I don't
want to do explicitly.
I'm just saying,
"Take this and put it there and
combine I and J."
But this is the same vector we
are calling (I times
Ax) + (J times
Ay).
I've told you,
if two vectors are equal,
the components must match.
I may then--I'm sorry.
I'm making a mistake here.
This should be prime.
By the way, when you guys do
this, did anybody notice prime?
If you noticed it,
you got to stop.
You cannot let me write
anything that's incorrect.
You got to follow it in some
detail.
I know you couldn't do the
details, but you should at least
know that it's I prime
and J prime that have
been replaced by I and
J.
But Ax prime and
Ay prime will continue to
be the coefficients.
So if I make a comparison,
I find Ax = Ax
prime cos φ - Ay
prime sin φ and
Ay = -Ax prime sin
φ + Ay prime cos
φ.
What's the purpose of the
exercise?
The purpose of the exercise is
to make the following precise
remark.
You can pick your unit vectors,
or what are called basis
vectors, any way you like.
Pick any two perpendicular
directions which may be related
to the ones I picked by an angle
φ.
Then the same entity,
the same arrow which has an
existence of its own,
independent of axes,
can be described by you and me
using different numbers.
There's a precise connection
between the numbers you use and
the numbers I use.
Your numbers with the primes on
them are related to mine by this
relation.
Now, you can ask the opposite
question.
How do I get your numbers in
terms of my numbers?
What should I do?
They won't invert the relation.
Anybody have an idea of what I
should do now?
No one has a clue on how I can
go back from these to that?
Let me take a second to ask.
Do you have any idea what you
should do?
Okay, maybe you are--yes?
Student:
[inaudible]
Professor Ramamurti
Shankar: Negative of
φ?
Yes.
Okay.
His idea was,
the formula written for the
opposite one will have the
opposite angle;
he replaces φ by minus
of that.
That turns out to be the
correct answer.
But I want you guys to think
about why it was difficult to do
it another way,
which is more pedestrian.
If I told you 3x +
2y = 9 and 4x +
6y = 6,
you certainly know how to solve
for x and y,
right?
This is something you've seen
in your high school.
You've got to juggle the two
equations, multiply that by 4,
multiply that by 3,
add and subtract and so on.
Why is it when you saw this,
you didn't realize it's the
same problem?
It's the same problem;
φ is the angle,
sine and cosine are definite
numbers.
If I pick an angle of 60%,
these are some numbers like
half and root 3 over 2.
I'm trying to write these two
unknowns in terms of these two
knowns and you can solve for
them.
Here though,
what you multiply by would be
sine φs and cos
φs, so you can
eliminate.
For example,
if you multiply this by sin φ
and multiply this by cos
φ and add them,
the Ax prime will drop
off.
That's the kind of thing you
should do.
Maybe I will add this on as a
problem you should do in your
homework.
Do you realize that this is a
pair of simultaneous equations
in which you can solve for these
two unknowns,
if you like,
in terms of these two knowns
and these coefficients,
which are like these numbers,
3,2, 4, and 6?
You can do that,
but we like to get the answer
the way this gentleman described
it,
because we like to get an
answer more readily than by
doing the mundane work.
The idea that he had was,
if you go from me to you,
with a clockwise rotation,
you go from you to me by a
counterclockwise rotation.
Therefore, if I go by φ
to you, then you must go by
-φ to come to me.
That's correct.
You will find then the result
is Ax cos φ +
Ay sin φ.
I'm using the fact that when
you take a cosine and change the
angle inside the cosine,
it doesn't care;
whereas, if you go to the sine
and change the angle inside the
sine, it becomes minus sine.
In other words,
sine of minus φ is
minus sin φ and cosine
of minus θ is cos
φ.
This, by the way,
is another property I expect
people to know in this course.
You cannot say,
"I never heard of it.
I don't know where it came
from."
You should think about why that
is true.
If you do that,
you will find this result.
So, there is a way to go from
the unprimed coordinates to the
prime coordinate by rotating
your axis and actually
calculating the components.
Now, here is a very important
message, which is the following.
When you go from one set of
axes to another set of axes,
the numbers change.
The components of the vector
are not the same.
You might think it's all along
x and somebody can tell
me it's all along my new
y axis.
So the components of vector are
not invariant.
They depend on who is looking
at the vector.
There's one quantity that's
going to come out the same,
no matter who is looking at the
vector.
Anybody have a guess?
Yes?
Student:
[inaudible]
Professor Ramamurti
Shankar: The length of the
vector is the length of the
vector.
Perhaps it's clear to you that
no matter how your axes are
oriented, when you ask,
"How long is this arrow?"
you are going to get the same
answer.
That means Ax^(2) +
Ay^(2) = Ax prime
squared + Ay prime
squared.
That's a property of this
expression.
You can square this guy and add
it to the square of this guy and
you will find,
using the magic of
trigonometry,
that this is true.
I'm going over these points,
because they're very,
very important.
When we do relativity,
we'll be dealing with vectors
in space-time and we'll find
that different observers
disagree on what is this and
what is this.
But they will agree on certain
things.
Yes?
Student:
[inaudible]
Professor Ramamurti
Shankar: Here?
Student:
[inaudible]
Professor Ramamurti
Shankar: Here?
Student:
[inaudible]
Professor Ramamurti
Shankar: This has a minus
and that doesn't have a minus.
Student:
[inaudible]
Professor Ramamurti
Shankar: Oh,
here?
Student:
[inaudible]
Professor Ramamurti
Shankar: No,
here both are plus,
but this one has a minus.
Student:
[inaudible]
Professor Ramamurti
Shankar: Oh,
I'm so sorry.
Yes.
That is correct.
Thank you.
That's right.
The minus is only up there.
Very good.
Certain things are called
invariants.
This is an example of an
invariant.
By the way, I want to conclude
with one important point.
We learned that a vector is a
quantity that has a magnitude
and a direction.
Actually, the view of vectors
we take nowadays is that vectors
are associated with a pair of
numbers which,
on the rotation of axes,
transform like this.
Anything that transforms this
way is called a vector.
Now, I want to ask the
following question.
Can I manufacture new vectors?
We've got one vector which is
r.
How about more vectors?
More position vectors?
I want to look at that.
That turns out to be a very
nice way to produce vectors,
given one vector,
the position vector.
And that's the following.
Let's take a particle that is
moving in the xy plane,
so that at one instance--sorry,
let me change this graph-- is
here--oh, this is bad.
Let's see.
It's moving like this.
I'm here now.
A little later, I am there.
That's what I meant.
This is called r.
This is called Δr,
this is called r +
Δr.
The particle is moving along
this arc.
Initially, its location as a
function of time is equal to
I times x(t) +
J times y(t).
You wait a short amount of
time, it goes to a new location,
which I'm going to call
r(t) + Δt.
What can that be?
It can be x(t) plus some
change in x plus J
times y(t) plus a change
in y.
That, we recognize to be
r(t) plus everything
else, which is I times
Δx + J times
Δy.
I'm going to call this guy a
tiny vector Δr.
In other words,
when you move on a line,
you wait a small time
Δt.
You move by an unknown
Δx.
When you move in the plane,
your change is,
itself, a vector.
You start with a vector,
you change by this vector
Δr.
It gives you the new location.
Δr has got two
components.
It's got a change in x
and it's got a change in
y.
Therefore, we will define
what's called the velocity
vector, which is,
if you want the limit as
Δt goes to 0 of
Δr over Δt,
and you can see that is going
to be I times dx
over dt + J times
dy over dt,
you can actually take
derivatives of a vector with
time.
That's also a vector.
Why is the derivative of a
vector also a vector?
Because the difference in the
vector between two times is its
vector.
Dividing by Δt is like
multiplying by 1 over
Δt.
But I know when I multiply a
vector by a number,
I get a vector in the same
direction.
What this really means is that
if you take the limit as
Δt goes to 0,
I cannot draw it that well,
but imagine bringing the second
point closer and closer to the
first one.
Δr is getting very
small;
Δt is very small.
But by the miracle of calculus,
the ratio will approach a
definite limit.
That limit will be some arrow
we can call the velocity at the
time and it will always be
tangent to the curve.
The tangent's pointing towards
the direction you are headed at
that instant.
If I gave you the location of a
particle as a function of time,
you can find the velocity by
taking derivatives.
For example,
if I say a particle's location
is I times t^(2) +
J times 9t^(3),
for every value of time,
you can put the numbers in and
you can find the velocity by
just taking derivatives.
The derivative of this guy will
be 2t times I plus
what?
27t^(2) times J.
Rule for taking derivatives,
if you want to do this mindless
application of calculus,
you can do it.
I and J are
constant;
ignore them when you take
derivatives;
x and y are
dependent on time.
Just take the derivatives and
that's the velocity vector.
You can take a derivative of
the derivative and you can get
the acceleration vector,
will be d^(2)r over
dt^(2),
and you can also write it as
dv over dt.
Anybody have a question with
what I've done now or what we're
doing here?
Let me summarize what I'm
saying.
Particle's moving in a plane.
At every instant,
it's got a location given by
the vector r;
r itself is contained in
a pair of numbers,
x and y,
and they vary with time.
When you vary time a little bit
and ask, "How does r
change?"
and you take the quotient of
Δr to Δt,
you get the velocity vector.
Mathematically,
it's done by taking the
expression for r and
differentiating everything in
sight that can be differentiated
as vector t.
Even though we started with a
single vector,
which is the position vector,
we're now finding out that its
derivative has to be a vector
and the derivative of the
derivative is also a vector.
Again, when you learn the
relativity, you will find out
there's one vector that's
staring at you.
I'll come to what that is.
That's the analog of the
position vector.
But more and more vectors can
be manufactured by taking
derivatives.
Now, I want to do one concrete
problem where you will see how
to use these derivatives.
I'm going to write the
particular case of r(t)
and take derivatives.
We'll get a feeling for what's
going on.
The problem I have in mind
looks like this.
r(t) is going to be a
fixed number r times
I times cos>
ωt + J times
ωt.
ω is a new creature.
You don't know what it is right
now.
I'm going to just put that in.
ω times t is
some number and it's the cosine
of the number times I
plus sine of the number times
J times r.
What is going on as a function
of time?
What's this particle doing?
First thing you can tell is
that if you find the length of
this vector, you'll find the
square of the x and the
square of the y.
But since sine square plus
cosine square is 1,
you'll find this vector has a
fixed length r.
That means, it can only be
rattling around in a circle of
radius r.
In fact, what the guy is doing
looks like this.
At any given time t,
draw an angle ω
t and a radius r
and that's where your particle
is.
Do you see that?
Because the x component
of this one is r cos
ω t and the y
part is r sin ωt.
ω is a fixed number.
As t increases,
this angle increases and the
particle goes round and round.
We're describing the motion of
a particle in a circle.
Let's understand what ω
is.
Let's get a feeling for
ω.
As time increases,
the angle increases and we can
ask, "How long does it take for
the particle to come back to the
starting point?"
Suppose the starting point was
here.
As I increase t,
ωt will increase,
and I want to come back to
where I start.
You've got to ask yourself,
let the time it takes to do a
full circle, that's the time
period, do a full circle.
What can you say about
ωt?
What should be the value of
ωt?
Student:
[inaudible]
Professor Ramamurti
Shankar: Very good.
You can say it's 360 degrees,
that's fine.
But we like to measure angle in
radians.
How many people know about
radians?
Okay.
For those who have not seen a
radian, it's just another way to
measure angle with the
understanding that a full
circle,
which we used to think is 360
degrees, is equal to 2π
radians.
2π is roughly 6.
So a radian is roughly 60
degrees.
It's 58 and a fraction.
Why do you like to measure
angle in the peculiar way?
You will see the advantages of
that later.
We'll adapt the convention that
we'll measure angle in a radian.
So that a half circle,
instead of calling it 180
degrees, we will call it just
π.
And a quarter circle,
instead of 90,
we will call it π over
2 and call it as π over
4 and so on.
It's good to know certain
famous angles.
This is π over 2,
this is π,
this is 3π over 2,
and this is back to 2π.
Therefore, ωt =
2π tells you that
ω is 2π divided
by the time it takes to complete
a revolution.
One over the time period is
what we call the frequency,
so you can write it as--f is
just the usual frequency.
60 Hertz means you do 60
revolutions per second.
Alright.
How fast is this particle
moving?
It's going around a circle.
The angle is increasing at a
steady rate, so we know it's
going at a steady speed.
I'm asking what's the
tangential speed as it moves
along the circle?
Yes?
Student:
[inaudible]
Professor Ramamurti
Shankar: How do you reach
that conclusion?
Student:
[inaudible]
Professor Ramamurti
Shankar: I agree,
but I want the speed in meters
per second.
ω will be in radians
per second.
Yes?
Student:
[inaudible]
Professor Ramamurti
Shankar: And how did you get
that?
Student:
[inaudible]
Professor Ramamurti
Shankar: Okay.
That's correct.
But let me deduce that in
another way.
Your answer is completely
correct.
It is ωr.
I want to say how you get it.
One way is to say,
if I do a full revolution,
I think of the speed as a
distance over time.
I'm going to go one full
revolution.
The distance I travel is
2πr.
But 2π over t
was identified as ω.
So the tangential velocity at
any point is equal to ω
times r.
That's a useful quantity to
know.
Now, you can take this
velocity, you can take this
r.
Let me find V(t).
V(t) is obtained by
taking derivative of this
expression.
I think you guys know enough
calculus for me to write is
equal to r times I
times minus ω sin
ωt,
plus J times ω
cos ωt.
That is the velocity of this
guy.
I invite you to try this
formula whenever you want.
Pick a time.
Let's say, if I go a quarter of
a circle, I expect to be moving
to the left.
A quarter of a circle means
ωt is π over 2.
Cosine of π over 2 is
0, because cos 90 is 0;
sin of π over 2 is 1
and I get a speed of ωr
in the negative I
direction.
ωr was the speed.
That's indeed the correct
answer.
You can satisfy yourself at
various times as going like
this.
Let's sneak in one more
derivative here,
which is to take the derivative
of the derivative.
That's a very important result.
To do that, let's take one more
derivative.
Let's try to do part of it in
the head, so I can just write
down the answer.
If you take one more
derivative, the sine is going to
become a cosine and yield
another ω.
This cosine is going to become
a minus sine and give me another
ω.
If you do that,
you will find the whole answer
is equal to -ω^(2) times
just the vector r itself.
That's a very interesting
result.
It tells you when a particle
moves in a circle,
it has an acceleration in a
negative r direction,
namely directed towards the
center.
What's the magnitude of that
acceleration?
I write it without an arrow
here.
That's equal to ω^(2)
times a magnitude of this
vector, which is just r.
But now, I can also write it as
v^(2) over r.
Here, ready?
This is a very important
formula.
I don't know how many kids,
generation after generation,
get in trouble because they do
not remember the following fact.
I'm going to say it once more
with feeling.
When a particle moves in a
circle, it has an acceleration
towards the center of this size,
v^(2) over r.
Very simple.
It comes from the fact that
velocity is a vector and you can
change your velocity vector by
changing your direction.
This particle is constantly
changing its direction,
but it therefore has an
acceleration and the
acceleration,
we have shown here,
is pointing towards the center.
The size of that is
v^(2) over r.
For example,
if a car is going on a
racetrack and you're seeing it
from the top,
if the speedometer says 60
miles per hour,
you might say it's not
accelerating.
That's the layperson's view.
If it's going in a circle,
you will say from now on,
that it, indeed,
has an acceleration,
even though no one's stepping
on the accelerator,
of amount v^(2) over
r.
That's a very important thing.
That's what you're learning in
this course.
The fact that when you step on
your gas you accelerate,
everybody knows.
The fact that when you go in a
circle, you accelerate is what
we're learning here,
coming from the fact that
velocity is a vector and its
change can be due to change in
the magnitude or change in
direction.
This was a problem,
but the magnitude of velocity
was nailed down and fixed at
ωr, but the direction is
constantly changing.
So I'm going to now do a second
class of problems.
We will return to this issue
later.
By the way, one thing I should
mention to you.
Suppose the particle is not
moving in a circle,
but does this.
Let's take a circle and just
keep a quarter of the circle.
During this part,
when you're doing a quarter of
a circle, this is supposed to be
a quarter of a circle.
You have the same acceleration
directed towards the center.
In other words,
you don't have to be moving
actually in a circle to have the
acceleration.
At any instant,
your motion,
if it follows any curve,
locally can be approximated as
being part of some circle.
You can take circles of
different size and place them
against your trajectory and see
which one fits.
That's the r.
v^(2) over r is
the acceleration directed
towards the center of that
circle.
One miscellaneous result,
which we don't use very much
now, but which I should mention
to you is the following.
Suppose this is the ground with
some origin here.
That's the plane with some
origin here.
And in the plane there is some
other object.
What's the location of the
object?
Let us say P for plane,
G for ground,
O for object.
I think it's clear,
the position of the object with
respect to the ground,
this vector is the same as the
position of the object with
respect to the plane,
plus the position of the plane
with respect to the ground.
Agreed?
Okay.
This is the picture here.
We can start taking derivatives
of this with respect to time.
That'll say the velocity of the
object with respect to the
ground, the velocity of the
object with respect to the
plane,
the velocity of the plane with
respect to the ground.
That means, if you are going in
a plane and you throw something
up in the air,
it seems to be going up and
down to you.
But if I see you through the
glass, the object is going on
some trajectory,
which has got both up and down
and horizontal motion.
This is the rule for adding
velocities.
When you have a velocity in the
moving plane frame and you want
to find the velocity on the
ground,
you should add to every object
in the plane the velocity of the
plane with respect to the
ground.
That's intuitively clear.
You use it all the time,
but maybe along one dimension.
But this is the way to do it in
two dimensions.
There may be some simple
problem involving this in the
problem I assigned,
so I am just going over this.
The problem we want to do
today, a whole family of
problems, looks like this.
I want to consider a particle
which has definite acceleration
a, a constant one,
but a is now a vector.
The question I have is,
"What is its location at all
future times?"
I think you can tell by analogy
with what I did in one dimension
that the position of that object
at any time t is going to
be the initial position plus
velocity times t plus ½
at^(2).
Everything is the same as in
1D, except everybody's a vector
now.
Initial position is a pair of
numbers.
Initial velocity is a pair of
numbers.
Once you know those,
you can find the position of
the object at all future times.
Let's take one simple example.
There is somebody in a car and
decided to fly off.
We want to know,
as you can tell--our concern is
where does the car hit the
ground?
When does the car hit the
ground?
That's the problem in two
dimensions.
How do we solve this problem?
We pick our origin to be this
point here.
Let the height of the building
be h.
Car is traveling with some
initial speed
v_0 in the
horizontal direction.
This equation is a pair of
equations.
One along x and one
along y.
For the x part,
I'm going to write x =
x_0 +
v_0t.
x_0 I'm going
to reduce to 0 by choice of my
origin being here.
The x coordinate of the
car is the 0,
because this is my origin.
How about the y
coordinate?
The equation for the y
coordinate is the height of the
building.
The velocity has no vertical
component.
There is no vy.
But it has an acceleration of
-g.
So this is the fate of this
person at any given time
t.
Our t = 0,
you have him right on top of
this edge.
At all future times,
x proceeds as if nothing
happened and then y,
you are falling.
If you want to know something
like when do you hit the ground,
I think it's fairly clear what
you have to do.
For example,
if t* is the time you
hit the ground,
then t* satisfies the
equation h - ½
gt*^(2) = 0.
You solve for the t*
from this one and you put it
there.
That tells you where you land.
I don't think I have to
actually do that step.
I'm assuming you can fill in
the blanks.
Solve this equation for
t*, put it there and
that's where you land.
That's one class of problems.
Here's the second class.
The second class is the most
popular application of what I'm
doing now.
I want you not to memorize
every formula the book gives you
for this problem.
That's a problem of projectile
motion.
Projectile motion.
You start here and you fire a
projectile with some velocity
v_0 at some
angle θ.
It's going to go up and it's
going to come down.
One question is:
Where is it going to land?
Another question is:
At what angle should you fire
your projectile so it will go
the furthest?
You can find the equation,
but you've got to think a
little bit before you solve
everything.
It's good to have an idea of
what's coming.
Imagine you got this monster
cannon to fire things.
It's got a fixed speed
v_0.
How do you want to aim it so
you can be most effective?
Go as far as you can?
There are two schools of
thought.
One says, aim at your enemy and
fire like this.
Then it lands on your foot,
because assuming the cannon is
at zero height,
the cannonball certainly comes
out towards the enemy,
but has no time of flight.
Other one says,
maximize the time of flight and
you point a cannon like this.
It goes up, stays in the air
for a very long time,
but it falls on your head.
We know the truth is somewhere
between 0 and 90.
Now, the naive guess may be 45,
but it turns out the naive
guess is actually correct.
I just want to show you how
that comes out.
I don't want you to cram this
formula.
This is the kind of thing you
should be able to deduce.
Let's go back to the same thing
I wrote earlier.
x = 0 plus-- What's the
horizontal velocity?
Horizontal velocity is
v_0 cos
θ.
So x is
v_0 cos
θ times t.
And y is
v_0 sin
θ times t minus
½ gt^(2).
Now we know everything about
this particle.
I told you once you know the
free parameters,
r_0 and
v_0,
you know everything about the
future of the object.
Let's ask, what's the range?
Range is that distance.
What's the strategy for range?
You see how long you are in the
air and the whole time you are
in the air, you are traveling
horizontally at this speed.
Again, let t* be the
time when you hit the ground.
You said 0 =
(v_0 sin
θ - ½ gt*) times
t*.
I just pulled out a common key.
It says you are on the ground
on two occasions.
One is initially.
We are not interested in that.
If the time you are interested
in is not zero,
you're allowed to cancel it and
get the time from here.
That time is t* =
2v_0 sin
θ over g.
That's how long you are in the
air.
This says, if you want to be in
the air for a long time,
maximize sin θ,
so you may think that 90
degrees is the best angle.
But that's not the goal.
The goal is to get the biggest
range.
Go back to x and put
your value for t*,
which is 2v_0
sin θ/g.
That becomes
v_0^(2)/g times
2 sin θ cos θ.
If you go back to your
trigonometry,
you should find that is really
the formula for sin 2θ.
That's another example where
knowing the trigonometry is very
helpful.
This tells you exactly what you
want.
It says, make sin 2θ as
big as you want.
That tells you 2θ is
going to be 90 and θ is
going to be 45.
It's not from a naive guess
that it's halfway between 0 and
90.
It turns out to be-- there's a
fairly complicated balance
between the time of flight and
the range.
Some people memorize this.
I would say, don't do that.
After a while,
you won't have room in your
head for anything.
Just go back as often as
possible to this formula and
work your way from there.
There are more variations,
but it's always the same thing.
Here's another variation.
In my days, they would say,
"Find out when you want an
object to go through that
point."
I tell you the initial velocity
v_0,
I tell you at what angle I fire
it.
I want you to find the speed so
it will land here.
How do you do that problem?
You do that problem by saying,
suppose this actually happens
at some time t.
At that time t,
the x coordinate must
have a certain value.
Then go to the x
equation and demand that this be
equal to the desired x
value and find the time.
I take the time and put it in
the y equation and demand
that the y I get,
agrees with this y.
If you do that,
you will find there is one
unknown, which is
v_0,
and we can solve for
v_0.
This is the most general
problem you can have.
In the textbook,
of course, people make them
interesting.
Suddenly there's a mountain.
There's a physicist hiking on
this mountain.
See, you're already laughing.
It's not a very credible
problem.
We don't hike and when we get
stuck, we don't want food,
we want our table of integrals.
That's what we want somebody to
send to us.
These problems are embellished
in many ways to make you all
feel involved.
For example,
instead of a stone dropping,
nowadays there's a monkey
that's falling down.
The people in life sciences
feel, "Hey, we are represented
in this subject."
All those creatures,
which are very interesting,
in the end, you are told,
"There's a horse inside a
railway carriage."
You cannot see the horse,
but the horse is moving.
You can deduce it because the
carriage is moving the other
way.
There's a picture of a horse,
a picture of the carriage,
all glossy stuff.
Then it says,
"Treat the horse as a point
particle."
See?
That's what we learned in the
old days.
But nowadays,
it's a horse,
but in the end,
if you're going to treat it as
a point particle,
it seems to me to be a real
waste.
If you're the Godfather, right?
You want to get the contract
for Johnny Fontaine,
you don't tell your
consiglieri, "Hey Tom,
put a point particle on Jack's
bed."
When you want a horse,
use a horse.
When you want a point particle,
if you wake up and find a point
particle on your bed,
what's your reaction?
I think these extra pictures
sometimes they're helpful,
sometimes they just make the
book cost a lot more.
There are problem in that a
horse must be treated when we
study rigid bodies.
Even there, a horse is not
really a rigid body,
unless it's been dead for a
long time.
The fact is not a point
particle is important.
I think the reason books are
bigger and bigger but still
carry the same information is
that examples are more and more
interesting.
Sometimes they serve a purpose.
Sometimes they are distracting.
I haven't written a book in
this field, so I will not say
anything more.