Physics Through Problem Solving - XXIV: Poisson Brackets

Ahmed Sayeed

Dept of Physics, University of Pune Pune

In this installment we shall do some problems with Poisson brackets. The Poisson brackets can be used to state the equation of motion (i.e., time dependence in the form of a differential equation) of any function of coordinates and momenta (i.e, `a dynamical variable') in a very elegant manner which emphasizes the role played by the Hamiltonian function and the constants of motion. The problems are meant to demonstrate these aspects of Poisson brackets.