- #1
naele
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Homework Statement
Consider the metric in polar coordinates
[tex]ds=\frac{2}{1-r^2}\sqrt{dr^2+r^2d\phi^2}[/tex]
Show that the shortest path from the origin to any other point is a straight line.
Homework Equations
Euler-Lagrange equations
[tex]\frac{\partial F}{\partial y} - \frac{d}{dx}\frac{\partial F}{\partial y'}=0[/tex]
in polar coordinates
[tex]\frac{\partial F}{\partial \phi} -\frac{d}{dr}\frac{\partial F}{\partial \phi'}=0[/tex]
The Attempt at a Solution
By inspection, there's no dependence on [itex]\phi[/itex], just [itex]r,\phi'[/itex]. Re-writing ds a little bit gives
[tex]ds=\frac{2}{1-r^2}\sqrt{1+r^2\phi'^2}dr[/tex]
The euler-lagrange equations reduce to a first integral where [itex]\partial F/\partial \phi'=C[/itex] is
[tex]\frac{2}{1-r^2}\frac{r^2\phi'}{\sqrt{1+r^2\phi'^2}}=C[/tex]
I think this is the correct way to go about doing it, but I feel like I'm missing something. To show that the path is straight, I need to show that [itex]\phi'=0[/itex]. But the resulting equations I get whether I integrate wrt r first, or differentiate wrt r gives me very messy equations and solving for [itex]\phi'[/itex] is too difficult.