I've seen a few other threads on here inquiring about what is the point of Lagrange Multipliers, or the like. My main question though is, how can I tell by looking at a system in a problem that Lagrange Multipliers would be preferred compared to generalized coordinates. I'm in a theoretical mechanics course, and we are just doing very basic systems (pendulums, points constrained to some shape).
The book I have just outlines Lagrange Multipliers incorporated into the Lagrangian Equation.
$$ \frac{\partial L}{\partial q_j} -\frac{d}{dt}\frac{\partial L}{\partial \dot{q_j}} + \sum_k \lambda_k(t) \frac{\partial f_k}{\partial q_j}=0.$$
The book gives about 2 examples of using these, but I wouldn't know whether or not to use them over just using the regular generalized coordinate example.
References:
- Thornton & Marion, Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems, Fifth Ed.; p.221.
Best Answer
In the context of Lagrange equations
$$\frac{d}{dt}\frac{\partial (T-U)}{\partial \dot{q}^j}-\frac{\partial (T-U)}{\partial q^j}~=~Q_j-\frac{\partial{\cal F}}{\partial\dot{q}^j}+\sum_{\ell=1}^m\lambda^{\ell} a_{\ell j}, \qquad j~\in \{1,\ldots, n\}, \tag{L}$$
in classical mechanics, the Lagrange multipliers are used to impose semi-holonomic constraints
$$\sum_{j=1}^n a_{\ell j}(q,t)\dot{q}^j+a_{\ell t}(q,t)~=~0, \qquad \ell~\in \{1,\ldots, m\}. \tag{SHC}$$
See my Phys.SE answer here for notation.
If a semi-holonomic constraint is holonomic, it is not necessary to implement it via a Lagrange multiplier, except for the case where one is interested in calculating the corresponding constraint force.
References: