A pendulum with a moving support point
Gabriela Gonz´alez
September 12, 2006
Consider a pendulum with mass m hanging from a rod of length l. The support point
moves horizontally with a known function R(t) = X(t)ˆi + Y (t)ˆj. We can use the angle
between the vertical and the pendulum rod as a generalized coordinate, the only one
needed to describe the system.
The position vector of the mass m is
r = R + l(sin ˆi + cos ˆj)
The velocity is
v = ˙R + l ˙ (cos ˆi − sin ˆj)
The kinetic energy is
T =
1
2mv2 =
1
2m(|˙R|2 + l2 ˙ 2 + 2l ˙ ( ˙X cos − ˙Y sin )
The potential energy is
V = −mg · r = −mg cos − mgY
and although time dependent (through Y (t), it is not dissipative, since it doesn’t contain
˙.
The Lagrangian is
L = T − V
L(, ˙, t) =
1
2ml2 ˙ 2 + ml ˙ ( ˙X (t) cos − ˙Y (t) sin ) +
1
2m( ˙X (t)2 + ˙Y (t)2) + mgl cos + mgY (t)
Lagrange’s equation is
0 = d
dt
@L
@˙
−
@L
@
= d
dt
ml2 ˙ + ml( ˙X cos − ˙Y sin )
−
ml ˙ (− ˙X sin − ˙Y cos ) − mgl sin
= ml2 ¨ + ml(¨X cos − ¨ Y sin ) + mgl sin
= ml2 ¨ + ml(g − ¨ Y ) sin + ml ¨X cos
1