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Virtual Displacement
In analytical mechanics, a branch of applied mathematics and physics, a virtual displacement (or infinitesimal variation) \delta \gamma shows how the mechanical system's trajectory can ''hypothetically'' (hence the term ''virtual'') deviate very slightly from the actual trajectory \gamma of the system without violating the system's constraints. For every time instant t, \delta \gamma(t) is a vector tangential to the configuration space at the point \gamma(t). The vectors \delta \gamma(t) show the directions in which \gamma(t) can "go" without breaking the constraints. For example, the virtual displacements of the system consisting of a single particle on a two-dimensional surface fill up the entire tangent plane, assuming there are no additional constraints. If, however, the constraints require that all the trajectories \gamma pass through the given point \mathbf at the given time \tau, i.e. \gamma(\tau) = \mathbf, then \delta\gamma (\tau) = 0. Notations Let M be the configur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Analytical Mechanics
In theoretical physics and mathematical physics, analytical mechanics, or theoretical mechanics is a collection of closely related alternative formulations of classical mechanics. It was developed by many scientists and mathematicians during the 18th century and onward, after Newtonian mechanics. Since Newtonian mechanics considers vector quantities of motion, particularly accelerations, momenta, forces, of the constituents of the system, an alternative name for the mechanics governed by Newton's laws and Euler's laws is ''vectorial mechanics''. By contrast, analytical mechanics uses '' scalar'' properties of motion representing the system as a whole—usually its total kinetic energy and potential energy—not Newton's vectorial forces of individual particles. A scalar is a quantity, whereas a vector is represented by quantity and direction. The equations of motion are derived from the scalar quantity by some underlying principle about the scalar's variation. Analytical mec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Special Orthogonal Group
In mathematics, the orthogonal group in dimension , denoted , is the group of distance-preserving transformations of a Euclidean space of dimension that preserve a fixed point, where the group operation is given by composing transformations. The orthogonal group is sometimes called the general orthogonal group, by analogy with the general linear group. Equivalently, it is the group of orthogonal matrices, where the group operation is given by matrix multiplication (an orthogonal matrix is a real matrix whose inverse equals its transpose). The orthogonal group is an algebraic group and a Lie group. It is compact. The orthogonal group in dimension has two connected components. The one that contains the identity element is a normal subgroup, called the special orthogonal group, and denoted . It consists of all orthogonal matrices of determinant . This group is also called the rotation group, generalizing the fact that in dimensions 2 and 3, its elements are the usual r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mechanics
Mechanics (from Ancient Greek: μηχανική, ''mēkhanikḗ'', "of machines") is the area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. Forces applied to objects result in displacements, or changes of an object's position relative to its environment. Theoretical expositions of this branch of physics has its origins in Ancient Greece, for instance, in the writings of Aristotle and Archimedes (see History of classical mechanics and Timeline of classical mechanics). During the early modern period, scientists such as Galileo, Kepler, Huygens, and Newton laid the foundation for what is now known as classical mechanics. As a branch of classical physics, mechanics deals with bodies that are either at rest or are moving with velocities significantly less than the speed of light. It can also be defined as the physical science that deals with the motion of and forces on bodies not in the quantum r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dynamical Systems
In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a function describes the time dependence of a point in an ambient space. Examples include the mathematical models that describe the swinging of a clock pendulum, the flow of water in a pipe, the random motion of particles in the air, and the number of fish each springtime in a lake. The most general definition unifies several concepts in mathematics such as ordinary differential equations and ergodic theory by allowing different choices of the space and how time is measured. Time can be measured by integers, by real or complex numbers or can be a more general algebraic object, losing the memory of its physical origin, and the space may be a manifold or simply a set, without the need of a smooth space-time structure defined on it. At any given time, a dynamical system has a state representing a point in an appropriate state space. This state is often given by a tuple of real numbers or by a vector in a geometri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virtual Work
In mechanics, virtual work arises in the application of the ''principle of least action'' to the study of forces and movement of a mechanical system. The work of a force acting on a particle as it moves along a displacement is different for different displacements. Among all the possible displacements that a particle may follow, called virtual displacements, one will minimize the action. This displacement is therefore the displacement followed by the particle according to the principle of least action. The work of a force on a particle along a virtual displacement is known as the virtual work. Historically, virtual work and the associated calculus of variations were formulated to analyze systems of rigid bodies, but they have also been developed for the study of the mechanics of deformable bodies. History The principle of virtual work had always been used in some form since antiquity in the study of statics. It was used by the Greeks, medieval Arabs and Latins, and Rena ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
D'Alembert Principle
D'Alembert's principle, also known as the Lagrange–d'Alembert principle, is a statement of the fundamental classical laws of motion. It is named after its discoverer, the French physicist and mathematician Jean le Rond d'Alembert. D'Alembert's principle generalizes the principle of virtual work from static to dynamical systems by introducing ''forces of inertia'' which, when added to the applied forces in a system, result in ''dynamic equilibrium''. The principle does not apply for irreversible displacements, such as sliding friction, and more general specification of the irreversibility is required. D'Alembert's principle is more general than Hamilton's principle as it is not restricted to holonomic constraints that depend only on coordinates and time but not on velocities. Statement of the principle The principle states that the sum of the differences between the forces acting on a system of massive particles and the time derivatives of the momenta of the system itself pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exponential Map (Lie Theory)
In the theory of Lie groups, the exponential map is a map from the Lie algebra \mathfrak g of a Lie group G to the group, which allows one to recapture the local group structure from the Lie algebra. The existence of the exponential map is one of the primary reasons that Lie algebras are a useful tool for studying Lie groups. The ordinary exponential function of mathematical analysis is a special case of the exponential map when G is the multiplicative group of positive real numbers (whose Lie algebra is the additive group of all real numbers). The exponential map of a Lie group satisfies many properties analogous to those of the ordinary exponential function, however, it also differs in many important respects. Definitions Let G be a Lie group and \mathfrak g be its Lie algebra (thought of as the tangent space to the identity element of G). The exponential map is a map :\exp\colon \mathfrak g \to G which can be defined in several different ways. The typical modern definition i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skew-symmetric Matrix
In mathematics, particularly in linear algebra, a skew-symmetric (or antisymmetric or antimetric) matrix is a square matrix whose transpose equals its negative. That is, it satisfies the condition In terms of the entries of the matrix, if a_ denotes the entry in the i-th row and j-th column, then the skew-symmetric condition is equivalent to Example The matrix :A = \begin 0 & 2 & -45 \\ -2 & 0 & -4 \\ 45 & 4 & 0 \end is skew-symmetric because : -A = \begin 0 & -2 & 45 \\ 2 & 0 & 4 \\ -45 & -4 & 0 \end = A^\textsf . Properties Throughout, we assume that all matrix entries belong to a field \mathbb whose characteristic is not equal to 2. That is, we assume that , where 1 denotes the multiplicative identity and 0 the additive identity of the given field. If the characteristic of the field is 2, then a skew-symmetric matrix is the same thing as a symmetric matrix. * The sum of two skew-symmetric matrices is skew-symmetric. * A sca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
3D Rotation Group
In mechanics and geometry, the 3D rotation group, often denoted SO(3), is the group of all rotations about the origin of three-dimensional Euclidean space \R^3 under the operation of composition. By definition, a rotation about the origin is a transformation that preserves the origin, Euclidean distance (so it is an isometry), and orientation (i.e., ''handedness'' of space). Composing two rotations results in another rotation, every rotation has a unique inverse rotation, and the identity map satisfies the definition of a rotation. Owing to the above properties (along composite rotations' associative property), the set of all rotations is a group under composition. Every non-trivial rotation is determined by its axis of rotation (a line through the origin) and its angle of rotation. Rotations are not commutative (for example, rotating ''R'' 90° in the x-y plane followed by ''S'' 90° in the y-z plane is not the same as ''S'' followed by ''R''), making the 3D rotation group a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rigid Body
In physics, a rigid body (also known as a rigid object) is a solid body in which deformation is zero or so small it can be neglected. The distance between any two given points on a rigid body remains constant in time regardless of external forces or moments exerted on it. A rigid body is usually considered as a continuous distribution of mass. In the study of special relativity, a perfectly rigid body does not exist; and objects can only be assumed to be rigid if they are not moving near the speed of light. In quantum mechanics, a rigid body is usually thought of as a collection of point masses. For instance, molecules (consisting of the point masses: electrons and nuclei) are often seen as rigid bodies (see classification of molecules as rigid rotors). Kinematics Linear and angular position The position of a rigid body is the position of all the particles of which it is composed. To simplify the description of this position, we exploit the property that the body is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Applied Mathematics
Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathematical science and specialized knowledge. The term "applied mathematics" also describes the professional specialty in which mathematicians work on practical problems by formulating and studying mathematical models. In the past, practical applications have motivated the development of mathematical theories, which then became the subject of study in pure mathematics where abstract concepts are studied for their own sake. The activity of applied mathematics is thus intimately connected with research in pure mathematics. History Historically, applied mathematics consisted principally of applied analysis, most notably differential equations; approximation theory (broadly construed, to include representations, asymptotic methods, variati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tangent Map
In differential geometry, pushforward is a linear approximation of smooth maps on tangent spaces. Suppose that is a smooth map between smooth manifolds; then the differential of ''φ, d\varphi_x,'' at a point ''x'' is, in some sense, the best linear approximation of ''φ'' near ''x''. It can be viewed as a generalization of the total derivative of ordinary calculus. Explicitly, the differential is a linear map from the tangent space of ''M'' at ''x'' to the tangent space of ''N'' at ''φ''(''x''), d\varphi_x: T_xM \to T_N. Hence it can be used to ''push'' tangent vectors on ''M'' ''forward'' to tangent vectors on ''N''. The differential of a map ''φ'' is also called, by various authors, the derivative or total derivative of ''φ''. Motivation Let \varphi: U \to V be a smooth map from an open subset U of \R^m to an open subset V of \R^n. For any point x in U, the Jacobian of \varphi at x (with respect to the standard coordinates) is the matrix representation of the tota ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
