starthaus said:
[tex]\frac{d^2r}{ds^2}=-\frac{m}{r^2}+(r-3m)(\frac{d\phi}{ds})^2[/tex]
Combine the above with the first Euler-Lagrange equation
[tex]\alpha\frac{dt}{ds}=K[/tex]
and, without any hacky assumptions about [tex]K[/tex] you will obtain that :
[tex]\frac{d^2r}{dt^2}=(r-3m)(\frac{d\phi}{dt})^2-(\frac{\alpha}{K})^2\frac{m}{r^2}+\frac{2m}{\alpha*r^2}(\frac{dr}{dt})^2[/tex]
Let's see if I am following your derivation correctly because you have glossed over an important detail. (See step 3).
First we use a fairly lengthy series of chain and product rules and substitutions to relate [itex]d^2r/ds^2[/itex] to [itex]d^2r/dt^2[/itex] and obtain:
[tex]\frac{d^2r}{dt^2} = \frac {d^2r}{ds^2} \frac{ds^2}{dt^2} - \frac{d}{dr}\left( \frac{dt}{ds}\right) \frac {dr^2}{ds^2} \frac{ds^3}{dt^3} \qquad \qquad (1)[/tex]
Now the values of dr/ds and [itex]d^2r/ds^2[/itex] are already given and we substitute these into the above equation to obtain:
[tex]\frac{d^2r}{dt^2} = \left ((r-3M)\frac{d\phi^2}{ds^2} - \frac {M}{r^2} \right ) \frac{\alpha^2}{K^2} - \frac{d}{dr}\left( \frac{K}{\alpha}\right) \frac {dr^2}{ds^2} \frac{\alpha^3}{K^3} \qquad \qquad (2)[/tex]
Next we need to evalute the [itex](d/dr)(K/\alpha)[/itex] expression on the right:
[tex]\frac{d}{dr}\left( \frac{K}{\alpha}\right) \Rightarrow \frac{d}{dr}\left( \frac{K}{1-2M/r}\right) \Rightarrow \frac{-2KM}{r^2(1-2M/r)^2 } \Rightarrow -\frac{2KM}{r^2 \alpha^2} \qquad \qquad (3)[/tex]
Note that we have to treat K as NOT being a function of (r) when differentiating wrt (r).
Substitute (3) back into (2) to obtain:
[tex]\frac{d^2r}{dt^2} = \left ((r-3M)\frac{d\phi^2}{ds^2} - \frac {M}{r^2} \right ) \frac{\alpha^2}{K^2} - \left( -\frac{2KM}{r^2 \alpha^2}\right)\frac {dr^2}{ds^2} \frac{\alpha^3}{K^3} \qquad \qquad (4)[/tex]
and simplify using [itex](\alpha/K) = (ds/dt)[/itex]:
[tex]\frac{d^2r}{dt^2} = (r-3M)\frac{d\phi^2}{dt^2} - \frac{\alpha^2}{K^2} \frac {M}{r^2} + \frac{2M}{ \alpha {r^2}} \frac {dr^2}{dt^2} \qquad \qquad (5)[/tex]
which is the same as your result and the same as the result I derived earlier in the thread.