I have a bead on a wire that is at an angle to the vertical, I need to show that there is a starting distance along the wire where the bead will exhibit circular motion regardless of the radius.
Working in spherical polars I get the equation of motion as
mr''=mr(wsin(a))^2-mgcos(a)
which yields
r=A(e^wsin(a)t)-B(e^-wsin(a)t)+(gcos(a)/(wsin(a))^2)
I have been asked to show that for r0=gcos(a)/(wsin(a)) the particle exhibits circular motion. However, I get a hyperbolic function - which is correct for other starting conditions... and can't show that r'=0...
Any help appreciated. Thanks.