so finally
d
2
~r
dt
2
=
δ
2
~r
δt
2
+ 2~ω ×~v +
δ~ω
δt
×~r + ~ω × (~ω ×~r) . (49)
Now we will replace the δ/δts by dots just to make it look simpler.
d
2
~r
dt
2
=
¨
~r + 2~ω ×~v +
˙
~ω ×~r + ~ω × (~ω ×~r) . (50)
where we have used the fact that ~v =
˙
~r – the velocity with respect to the arbitrary frame.
Finally we just have to put (50) into (41) and move the “fictitious” terms to the other side to
get the equation of motion in the arbitrary frame,
~
F
a
= m
¨
~r (51)
where
~
F
a
=
~
F
s
− m ~ω × (~ω ×~r) −2m ω ×~v − m
˙
~ω ×~r − m
d
2
dt
2
~
R , (52)
which is what we mean by (37). We we spend a lot of time next week discussing the physics of
each of the terms in (52).
Tidal forces
The phenomenon of tidal forces is rather special to gravitation. It is also both physically important
and a nice example of the Taylor expansion with several variables, so I can’t resist talking about
it (though I might skip it or put it off til next week if we get behind). The idea is to ask what the
gravity of a distant object does to a mass on the surface of an approximately spherical planet like
the earth (here we ignore the oblateness, which has only a tiny effect on this physics). Suppose
the center of the sphere is at a point ~r
0
. Now by Newton’s theorem, we know that the gravitational
force from a distant body on a mass m at ~r is given by
− G M m
~r − ~ρ
|~r − ~ρ |
3
(53)
where ~ρ and M are the position and mass of the distant body, so you might think that all we have
to do is to evaluate (53) for ~r on the surface of a sphere, given by |~r − ~r
0
| = R, where R is the
radius of the sphere. But that is not quite what we are interested in for the gravitational force. The
gravitational force acts not only on the mass m, but also on the planet, where the forces acts on
the center. What we are actually interested in is the accelerated coordinate system that is moving
along with the planet, with the center ~r
0
fixed. Thus we must add to (53), the fictitious translational
force associated with the acceleration of the planet due to gravity. The acceleration is
− G M
~r
0
− ~ρ
|~r
0
− ~ρ |
3
(54)
and the fictitious translational force is
G M m
~r
0
− ~ρ
|~r
0
− ~ρ |
3
(55)
16