Relative coordinates

coordinate systemsvectors

Hey I have a question related to relative coordinates.

Say I consider a pendulum. First I have a global coordinate system. At some position a pendulum is fixed. I use a position vector $\mathbf{r}_{pos}$ in the global coordinate system to define the attachment point of the pendulum. Now the position of the mass is given by a vector pointing from the attachment point to the mass, denoted by $l \mathbf{x}$, where $l$ is the length and $\mathbf{x}$ the direction from the attachment point to the mass. What I am wondering is that in this description, the physical dimension is not correct, because $l$ is of dimension $[m]$ as well as $\mathbf{x}$. How can I solve this problem, when I do not want to define the position of the mass in global coordinates?

Best Answer

When writting your new position vector $l\vec{x}$, $\vec{x}$ is unitary and dimensionless.

Let $\vec{r}$ be the position vector on your initial global coordinate system and $\vec{r}_{pos}$ be the (fixed) position of the attaching point in that same coordinate system. Then

$$\vec{r}=\vec{r}_{pos}+\vec{r}-\vec{r}_{pos}=\vec{r}_{pos}+||\vec{r}-\vec{r}_{pos}||\frac{\vec{r}-\vec{r}_{pos}}{||\vec{r}-\vec{r}_{pos}||}=\vec{r}_{pos}+l\frac{\vec{r}-\vec{r}_{pos}}{l}$$

where I used the fact that $||\vec{r}-\vec{r}_{pos}||=l$ .

You now define a new position vector $$\vec{r}^*=\vec{r}-\vec{r}_{pos}=l\frac{\vec{r}-\vec{r}_{pos}}{l}$$

$\frac{\vec{r}-\vec{r}_{pos}}{l}$ is what you called $\vec{x}$ and it's dimensionless since both $\vec{r}-\vec{r}_{pos}$ and $l$ have units of distance.

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