Recent content by AlwaysCurious

Hey there, I'm a high school student learning some basic linear algebra and multivariable calculus. I just ordered Spivak's Calculus on Manifolds, since the book that I've been going through was not as interesting (not a horrible cookbook, but most of the problems could be done without a lot...

Thank you again - although I know very little about the math (my book mentioned elliptic integrals but I skimmed over it), it was cool to see nutation, which I had not seen before.

Thank you, TSny! This is what I was wondering (answered in the first link) - without friction from the surface, the center of mass experiences zero acceleration, so the whole gyroscope must turn about the center of mass, and not its base.

As a gyroscope precesses uniformly, the vertical component of the center of mass' acceleration is zero, but the center of mass does accelerate. My guess (which I think is correct) is that the table has to force the gyroscope inwards via friction. If there was no friction, the gyroscope's...

Thank you so much! I am a high school student self-studying, so it is extremely helpful to receive your guidance. I really should've seen that! Using the other person's solution (shifting the frame of reference to the point of contact) makes the answer more exact, whereas I had to use an...

This is the question I asked: the normal force acts entirely vertically, and so does the weight: because, during uniform precession, the center of mass does not accelerate downwards (or up), the two forces have to cancel. However, the center of mass accelerates, thus ƩF cannot be zero. What is...

Apologies, here is my solution in text form: We only consider the component of angular momentum due to rotation of the coin (and not procession around the circle) since the latter does not change with time. Then |L| = |Iω| = 0.5 mb^2 ω = mvb^2/2b =mvb/2. Then L undergoes circular motion, with...

A gyroscope has two forces acting on it (is this wrong?): the normal force and its weight. Assuming they cancel, the total acceleration of the center of mass should be zero. How then, does the center of mass spin in a circle? Is there another force (friction?) present? If I released a gyroscope...

Well this is absolutely ridiculous... I'd very much appreciate it if you could still look at it, rotating a photo isn't hard in a photo-viewing program.

I uploaded it right-side up, but now it's upside-down. I will now upload upside-down and hope it comes out right-side up...

Apologies - hopefully this is better. Thank you for your help!

Homework Statement If you start a coin rolling on a table with care, you can make it roll in a circle. The coin "leans" inward, with its axis tilted. The radius of the coin is b. The radius of the circle traced by the coin's center of mass is R, and the velocity of its center of mass is v. The...

Thank you! I forgot to include the factor R in there, which gets me where I want to go.

Hello, I am a high school student trying to learn physics out of Kleppner and Kolenkow. Unfortunately, the solutions to some of the problems are not available online, nor is a solutions manual available, so I am unable to find out where I am wrong in some cases, such as this one. I would...

Thank you for the advice - it is something similar to what I'm thinking at the moment. Maybe a love of precision will come with maturity. Also, to go on the record, I do like math - it's just recently the demands of Spivak have been a bit much.