Motion in a non-inertial frame

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Andrea Vironda
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Hi,
in this Landau's extract i note that the total derivative is neglected in 2 places.
in the first case i think because it's raised twice, but in the second case?
 
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  • Printed text from a mechanics textbook: L' = ½mv'² + mv'·V + ½mV² − U, followed by discussion of omitting total time derivatives, and the identity mV(t)·v' = mV·dr'/dt = d(mV·r')/dt − mr'·dV/dt.
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A total derivative in the Lagrangian does not affect the equations of motion as it only contributes with a boundary term.
 
Orodruin said:
a boundary term.
sorry for my english, but what is that?
 
A contribution from the boundary that remains after integration. Think divergence theorem where the integral total derivative ##\nabla\cdot \vec v## is rewritten as a surface integral over the boundary of the original integration volume.