A mechanical system is composed, in fine, of a given number N of elements α, with a mass mα, which can be considered as pointlike and located at position rα. The configuration of this system is specified by the set of the constituent coordinates. However, in most situations, internal constraints (for example in a rigid body the distance between the constituents is independent of the configuration) or external constraints (for example a point subjected to remain on a given surface) impose a number of relationships between the coordinates; in such cases, a smaller set of specifications allows us to characterize the configuration of the system.
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© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
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Gignoux, C., Silvestre-Brac, B. (2009). The Lagrangian Formulation. In: Solved Problems in Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2393-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2393-3_1
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