Lagrangian, Hamiltonian coordinates

[badri89]

Dear All,

To give a background about myself in Classical Mechanics, I know to solve problems using Newton's laws, momentum principle, etc.

I din't have a exposure to Lagrangian and Hamiltonian until recently. So I tried to read about it and I found that I was pretty weak in coordinate systems. Especially in problems such as, a disk rolling on a inclined plane with a pendulum attached to it. I find much difficulty in finding the coordinates of the bob.

What prerequisite I need to crack these sort of problems? Give me some links to brush up coordinate system or suggest some reading! Thanks

 

[UltrafastPED]

Any introductory text on analytical mechanics should provide adequate guidance - they all have to move between the "generalized" coordinates that are natural to a problem and the cartesian coordinates where you know how to express the kinetic energy.

For example, Fowles "Analytical Mechanics" is a good undergraduate text.