Determination of constraint forces in holonomic classical systems: critical analysis of three methods

Abstract In this work, we critically analyze the peculiarities and potentialities of three approaches for the calculation of constraint forces in classical holonomic systems, namely, the Newtonian formalism, the Lagrangian formalism and a third mixed method developed by Brazilian physicist Nivaldo A. Lemos [1]. Analyzing the solutions of three classic problems by each of these methods, we conclude that the number of dimensions and the number of constraints of the problem influence in the efficiency of the methods, which provided the establishment of a criterion for the choice of formalism to be used.