Michał Kosztołowicz

Variational principle of nonholonomic mechanics

We investigate a possibility of deriving equations of motion from a variational principle in the case of linear nonholonomic constraints. Well established Hamilton principle, which yields proper equations in the case of holonomic constraints turns out to give wrong results in the nonholonomic case. However, it is still possible to derive correct equations following d'Alembert-Lagrange principle, which is not equivalent to Hamilton principle when constraints are nonholonomic.