Newton's laws of motion in the form of a Riccati equation.
We discuss two applications of a Riccati equation to Newton's laws of motion. The first one is the motion of a particle under the influence of a power law central potential V(r)=kr(epsilon). For zero total energy we show that the equation of motion can be cast in the Riccati form. We briefly show here an analogy to barotropic Friedmann-Robertson-Lemaitre cosmology where the expansion of the universe can be also shown to obey a Riccati equation. A second application in classical mechanics, where again the Riccati equation appears naturally, are problems involving quadratic friction. We use methods reminiscent to nonrelativistic supersymmetry to generalize and solve such problems.
Nowakowski
Marek
M
Instituto de Física de la Universidad de Guanajuato, Apartado Postal E-143, León, Guanajuato, Mexico.
Rosu
Haret C
HC