Elementary Newtonian Mechanics

Abstract

This chapter deals with the kinematics and the dynamics of a finite number of mass points that are subject to internal, and possibly external, forces, but whose motions are not further constrained by additional conditions on the coordinates. (The mathematical pendulum will be an exception). Constraints such as requiring some mass points to follow given curves in space, to keep their relative distance fixed, or the like, are introduced in Chap. 2. Unconstrained mechanical systems can be studied directly by means of Newton’s equations and do not require the introduction of new, generalized coordinates that incorporate the constraints and are dynamically independent.