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Homework Statement
Hi, just want to get a couple of things straight regarding finding the geodesics of a sphere not using polar coordinates, but rather, Lagrange multipliers...
I want to minimize I = int (|x-dot|2 dt)
subject to the constraint |x|=1 (sphere)
which gives an Euler equation of [itex]\lambda[/itex]x - x-doubledot = 0
I have to show that the Euler equation is actually |x-dot|2x - x-doubledot = 0
Is it right to assume that [itex]\lambda[/itex]=|x-dot|2 simply by the fact that it minimizes I* = int [|x-dot|2 - [itex]\lambda[/itex](|x|2-1)dt] which is [itex]\geq0[/itex], so the [itex]\lambda[/itex] that minimizes I* is |x-dot|2?
If I then try to integrate the Euler equation, then I get a SHM equation:
x1= A1 cos(|x-dot| t - C1) where A, C are constants
and similarly for x2, x3
But how do I combine them to give the equation of a great circle, since I don't know the Ci's?
Thank you for any enlightenment!
Homework Equations
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The Attempt at a Solution
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