Thursday 7 September 2017

differential geometry - Do $vec r$ and $d vec r$ have the same direction?


One question is bugging me for a long time but I couldn't make out anything nor could my friends. Here it goes:


We know, $\vec r$ is regarded as the position vector. So we can say, $$\vec r \cdot\vec r = r^2$$


Differentiating both sides with respect to time $t$, we get $$\vec r \cdot\frac{d \vec r}{dt} + \frac{d \vec r}{dt}\cdot\vec r = 2r \frac{dr}{dt}$$ or,$$2 \vec r \cdot\frac{d \vec r}{dt} = 2r \frac{dr}{dt}$$ or,$$\vec r \cdot\frac{d \vec r}{dt} = r \,\frac{dr}{dt}$$ or,$$\vec r \cdot\ d \vec r = r \,\ dr$$ or,$$r \,\ dr \cos \theta = r \,\ dr$$ where $\theta$ is angle between $\vec r$ and $d \vec r$


or,$$\cos \theta = 1$$ or,$$\theta = 0^\circ $$


Question no.1:So can I conclude that $\vec r$ and $d \vec r$ have the same direction? The above calculation suggests so but the diagram below does not. Why? enter image description here



Also if $\vec r$ and $d \vec r$ have the same direction, then $$\vec r \times \frac{d \vec r}{dt} = 0$$ Now,$$\vec r = r \hat r $$ where$$\hat r = \hat i \cos \theta + \hat j \sin \theta$$ So,$$\frac{d \vec r}{dt} = \frac{dr}{dt}\hat r + r \hat \theta \frac{d \theta}{dt}$$ and$$\vec r \times \frac{d \vec r}{dt} = r^2 \frac{d \theta}{dt} (\hat r \times \hat \theta) \not = 0 \,\ \text{(in general)}$$


Why does this contradiction arise?



Answer



Despite what some of the other answers are mentioning, the following equation you have is correct $$ \vec{r} \cdot d \vec{r} = r dr $$ You can check this by noting $$ \vec{r} = x {\hat i} + y {\hat j} + z {\hat k} \implies d \vec{r} = d x {\hat i} + d y {\hat j} + d z {\hat k} $$ Then $$ \vec{r} \cdot d \vec{r} = x dx + y dy + z dz $$ Further note $$ r = \sqrt{ x^2 + y^2 + z^2 } \implies dr = \frac{1}{r} \left( x dx + y dy + z dz \right) $$ implying that it is true that $\vec{r} \cdot d \vec{r} = r dr$.


Where you go wrong is the next step. You say $$ \vec{r} \cdot d \vec{r} = r dr \cos\theta $$ In doing this you are assuming $$ | d \vec{r} | = d r $$ Is this really true? Let us check. We have already computed $d r$. We have $$ | d \vec{r} | = | d x {\hat i} + d y {\hat j} + d z {\hat k} | = \sqrt{ dx^2 + dy^2 + dz^2 } $$ This is clearly not equal to $dr$, thereby making any conclusions based on this incorrect.


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