Related papers: Generalizations of the Brachistochrone Problem
The classical problem of the brachistochrone asks for the curve down which a body sliding from rest and accelerated by gravity will slip (without friction) from one point to another in least time. In undergraduate courses on classical…
If A and B are two points in the plane, with B lower and to the right of A, then we may consider the trajectory of an object travelling from A to B under the influence of gravity. The search for the trajectory minimising the time taken by…
We analyze the motion of a particle in the gravity field along a family of differentiable curves taking into account the Coulomb friction forces. A parametric equation of the optimal curves is given that generalizes the cycloid one in this…
The Brachistochrone problem, which describes the curve that carries a particle under gravity in a vertical plane from one height to another in the shortest time, is one of the most famous studies in classical physics. There is a similar…
A concise method for following the evolving geometry of a moving surface using Lagrangian coordinates is described. All computations can be done in the fixed geometry of the initial surface despite the evolving complexity of the moving…
A particle is thrown tangentially on a surface. It is shown that for some surfaces and for special initial velocities the thrown particle leaves immediately the surface, and for special conditions it never leaves the surface. The conditions…
Local symmetries of the action for a relativistic particle with curvature and torsion of its world curve in the (2+1)-dimensional space-time are studied. With the help of the method, worked out recently by the authors (Phys.Rev., D56, 1135,…
The motion of a block slipping on a surface is a well studied problem for flat and circular surfaces, but the necessary conditions for the block to leave (or not) the surface deserve a detailed treatment. In this article, using basic…
We consider the problem of finding paths of shortest transit time between two points (popularly known as Brachistochrone) for cylinders with off-centered center of mass, rolling down without slip, subject solely to the force of gravity.…
We solve the brachistochrone problem for a particle travelling through a spherical mass distribution of uniform density. We examine the connection between this problem and the popular "gravity elevator" result. The solution is compared to…
We determine the globally minimum time $T$ needed to translate a thin submerged flat plate a given distance parallel to its surface within a work budget. The Reynolds number for the flow is assumed to be large so that the drag on the plate…
We propose a generalization of Claudel, Virbhadra, and Ellis photon surfaces to the case of massive charged particles, considering a timelike hypersurface such that any worldline of a particle with mass $m$, electric charge $q$ and fixed…
If a particle has to fall first vertically 1 m from A and then move horizontally 1 m to B, it takes a time $t(=\tau_1+\tau_2=\tau_3=3/\sqrt{2g})=0.67$ s. Under gravity and without friction, if it sides down on a linear track inclined at…
We develop a theory of Brownian motion of a massive particle, including the effects of inertia (Kramers' problem), in spaces with curvature and torsion. This is done by invoking the recently discovered generalized equivalence principle,…
We study the problem of motion of a relativistic, ideal elastic solid with free surface boundary by casting the equations in material form ("Lagrangian coordinates"). By applying a basic theorem due to Koch, we prove short-time existence…
Surfaces of revolution in three-dimensional Euclidean space are considered. Several new examples of surfaces of revolution associated with well-known solvable cases of the Schoedinger equation (infinite well, harmonic oscillator, Coulomb…
From the simple Lagrangian the equations of motion for the particle with spin are derived. The spin is shown to be conserved on the particle world-line. In the absence of a spin the equation coincides with that of a geodesic. The equations…
Double Field Theory suggests to view the whole massless sector of closed strings as the gravitational unity. The fundamental symmetries therein, including the $\mathbf{O}(D,D)$ covariance, can determine unambiguously how the Standard Model…
Here, I construct an elegant frictional brachistochrone for a mass point motion of a granular material with the Coulomb frictional energy dissipation that inherently includes the evolving path curvature. The simple model reveals several…
A nonrelativistic quantum mechanical particle moving freely on a curved surface feels the effect of the nontrivial geometry of the surface through the kinetic part of the Hamiltonian, which is proportional to the Laplace-Beltrami operator,…