ON THE FUNDAMENTAL FORMULÆ OF DYNAMICS.
9
the masses of the particles from those which contain the forces, we have
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(10)
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or, if we write
for the acceleration of a particle,
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(11)
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If, instead of terms of the form
or in addition to such terms, equation (1) had contained terms of the form
, in which
denotes any quantity determined by the configuration of the system, it is evident that these would give terms of the form
in (6), (10) and (11). For the considerations which justified the substitution of
for
in the usual formula were in no respect dependent upon the fact that
denote rectangular coordinates, but would apply equally to any other quantities which are determined by the configuration of the system.
Hence, if the moments of all the forces of the system are represented by the sum
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the general formula of motion may be written
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(12)
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If the forces admit of a force-function
, we have
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or
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(13)
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But if the forces are determined in any way whatever by the configuration and velocities of the system, with or without the time,
and
will be unaffected by the variation denoted by
, and we may write the formula of motion in the form
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(14)
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or
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(15)
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If the forces are determined by the configuration alone, or the configuration and the time,
, and the
general formula may be written
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(16)
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or
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(17)
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The quantity affected by
in any one of the last five formulæ has not only a maximum value, but absolutely the greatest value consistent with the constraints of the system. This may be shown in reference to (15) by giving to
, contained explicitly or implicitly in the expression affected by
, any possible finite