The Simple Double Pendulum
We need at least two degrees of freedom to have a chaotic system. We have integrated several systems with two or more degrees of freedom: planetary orbits, two-dimensional harmonic oscillators, coupled oscillators. Because we solved them they probably don't exhibit chaotic motion. How about the double pendulum?
It is natural to define the coordinates to be the angle between each string and the vertical. We will denote this by θ1 and θ2. We can write the position of the bob in terms of these coordinates. We have
and
This is enough information to write out the Lagrangian.
Lagrangian
Let's divide both sides by . This will not change the equations of motion.
Before we get the equations of motion, we find that there is only one conserved quantity (the energy), and no conserved momenta. We can write the two momenta as
and
Let's invert these expressions to get
and
and we can write the Hamiltonian
and get Hamilton's equations
Another Coordinate System
Things look a bit simpler in a new set of coordinates. Let's take and , so we have and . Let's write out the Lagrangian
and get the momenta
and
and the Hamiltonian
Hamilton's equations are a bit simpler here but still singular
We see that things go wacky when or which corresponds to etc.
Whence the Pathology