Rigid body dynamics The result is a set of m equations of motion that define the dynamics of the rigid body system. If the generalized forces Q are derivable from a potential energy V(q...,q), then these equations of motion take the form In this case, introduce the Lagrangian, L=T-V, so these equations of motion become These are known as Lagrange's equations of motion. The linear and angular momentum of a rigid system of particles is formulated by measuring the position and velocity of the particles relative to the center of mass. Let the system of particles P, i=1...,n be located at the coordinates
Angular velocity arbitrary vector, from nondegeneracy of scalar product follows For angular velocity tensor maps positions to velocities, it is a vector field. In particular, this vector field is a Killing vector field belonging to an element of the Lie algebra so(3) of the 3-dimensional rotation group SO(3). This element of so(3) can also be regarded as the angular velocity vector. The same equations for the angular speed can be obtained reasoning over a rotating rigid body. Here is not assumed that the rigid body rotates around the origin. Instead, it can be supposed rotating around an arbitrary point that is moving