Generalized coordinates

In analytical mechanics, specifically the study of the rigid body dynamics of multibody systems, the term generalized coordinates refers to the parameters that describe the configuration of the system relative to some reference configuration. These parameters must uniquely define the configuration of the system relative to the reference configuration. This is done assuming that this can be done with a single chart. The generalized velocities are the time derivatives of the generalized coordinates of the system.

An example of a generalized coordinate is the angle that locates a point moving on a circle. The adjective "generalized" distinguishes these parameters from the traditional use of the term coordinate to refer to Cartesian coordinates: for example, describing the location of the point on the circle using x and y coordinates.

Although there may be many choices for generalized coordinates for a physical system, parameters which are convenient are usually selected for the specification of the configuration of the system and which make the solution of its equations of motion easier. If these parameters are independent of one another, the number of independent generalized coordinates is defined by the number of degrees of freedom of the system.

Generalized coordinates are usually selected to provide the minimum number of independent coordinates that define the configuration of a system, which simplifies the formulation of Lagrange's equations of motion. However, it can also occur that a useful set of generalized coordinates may be dependent, which means that they are related by one or more constraint equations.

For a system of N particles in 3D real coordinate space, the position vector of each particle can be written as a 3-tuple in Cartesian coordinates:

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