Paper 4, Section I, B

Classical Dynamics | Part II, 2018

State and prove Noether's theorem in Lagrangian mechanics.

Consider a Lagrangian

L=12x˙2+y˙2y2V(xy)\mathcal{L}=\frac{1}{2} \frac{\dot{x}^{2}+\dot{y}^{2}}{y^{2}}-V\left(\frac{x}{y}\right)

for a particle moving in the upper half-plane {(x,y)R2,y>0}\left\{(x, y) \in \mathbb{R}^{2}, y>0\right\} in a potential VV which only depends on x/yx / y. Find two independent first integrals.

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