Recent content by 8BitTRex

You lost me. Why do we need to consider the self interaction? The structure of the cylinder is rigid and the internal forces will not effect the CoM because they cancel each other out axially. The only effect on the CoM radius must be from an external force.

Can you be a little more specific what this theorem is named and how it specifically applies. I'm at a loss. Is it one of these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Physics_theorems I'd love to be able to understand this problem, I just need a little bit more on the specifics of how you...

Help me out, I don't really know what theorem you are talking about. We could analyze the energy of the cylinder and compute the trajectory since energy will be conserved in the Hamiltonian of the system.

What mechanism would cause it to be non-circular? The only way the orbit would be non-circular is if the radius of the COM changed. What would cause the COM orbital radius to change? All forces in the problem are radial between individual points on the cylinder and the mass M. To...

How about now? What if we know its COM was in a circular orbit at t=0. The heart of my question is whether the cylinder will point radially or not after t=0.

http://i.imgur.com/ZH9huJt.png Lets suppose this perfectly rigid cylinder has a uniform mass and has a length on the order of the distance between the Earth and Mars or some similar situation. This cylinder is orbiting around the Sun in a 2-body universe. What would this cylinder look like on...

What is the mechanism that causes it to speed up?

To clarify, because the answers seem to vary... The rope would ALWAYS point radially (in my ideal problem), classically and relativistically, because there is no tangential force that would act on it?? Is that right?

Why would the orbital period of a free mass create a force on the suspended rope? If angular momentum is conserved, wouldn't forces be radial? What would cause the tangential influence you are discussing?

yeah I understand that. I thought it was an interesting problem, however unrealistic, to develop my intuition, thanks for the reply.

Can you explain what would cause it to not hang straight? What non-radial force component is there in this problem? I can't think of anything that would cause the rope to deflect.

What non-radial force are you thinking about, in this Classical and ideal problem?

Are they negligible(veeeery small) or are they non existant? I was wondering if there was any force that would deflect the rope.

If I understand your odd description correctly, is it like this picture? http://i.imgur.com/Y08NsU7.png I'm having a hard time picturing it.

Which way would the stress deflect the rope? And would it oscillate?