37] ON THE ROTATION OF A SOLID BODY ROUND A FIXED POINT.
243
posed to become variable. We have, in this case, by Lagrange’s theory of the variation
of the arbitrary constants, the formulae
where
and in which V is supposed to be expressed as a function of a, b, c, d, e, f, t.
Thus the solution of the problem requires the calculation of thirty coefficients (a, b),
or rather of fifteen only, since evidently (a, b) = - (b, a). It is known that these coeffi
cients are functions of a, b, c, d, e, f without t ; so that, in calculating them, any assumed
arbitrary value, e.g. ¿ = 0, may be given to the time.
In practice, it often happens that one of the arbitrary constants, e.g. a, may be
expressed in the form
a = F (X, fi, v, u, v, w, t, b, c, d, e, /),
where b, c, d, e, f are given functions of X, /i, v, u, v, w, t. In this case, it is easily
seen that we may write
(a, b) = {(a, b)} + (c, b)^ + (d, b)^ + (e, b) g + (/. b)
da
df’
where, in the calculation of {{a, b)), the differentiations upon a are performed without
taking into account the variability of b, c
In the particular problem in question, the following are the values of the new
variables u, v, w {Math. Journal, memoir already quoted, [6]),
(29),
2
v = K ( vAp + Bq — XCV),
equations which may also be expressed in the form
QAp — ( 1 -f- X“) u + (Xyu. 1>) v -f- {v\ — yii) w
ZBq = (X/a — v) u + ( 1 + ¡j?) v + {pv + X) w,
2Cr = (v\ + /jl) u + {fir — X) v + ( 1 + v 2 ) w,
(30),
or putting for shortness
\u + fiv + Viv = «T
....(31),
31—2