Cylinder on a frictionless inclined plane

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A cylinder placed on a frictionless inclined plane will slide down without spinning. To roll, a frictional force is necessary to create the torque required for rotation. When the cylinder starts from rest, the gravitational force acts through its center of mass, resulting in no torque and therefore no rotation. The absence of friction means that the cylinder cannot engage in rolling motion and will simply slide down the incline.
jp
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I just have a question about cylinder. If a cylinder is on a frictionless inclined plane, does it spin as it comes down? I guess on a level surface, frictional force is required for a cylinder to roll, but I'm not sure about inclined plane.
 
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Originally posted by jp
If a cylinder is on a frictionless inclined plane, does it spin as it comes down? I guess on a level surface, frictional force is required for a cylinder to roll, but I'm not sure about inclined plane.
If the cylinder is started from rest, it will just slide down without rolling. A friction force is required to exert the torque needed to start it spinning about its center.
 
More precisely, since gravitational force acts on every point of the object, it is the same as if it acted only on the "center of gravity"- since the net force is through the center of gravity there is not torque and so no rotation.
 
Since all the forces are passing through COM and there is no physical interaction due to friction hence it must slide
 

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