The discussion centers on the concepts of rotation and translation as they apply to a beam pivoting at a hinge. When the string is cut, the beam experiences both rotation around the hinge and translation of its center of mass (CM). The movement of the CM, even while tracing a circular path, qualifies as translation. To achieve pure rotation without translation, the elbow joint must be raised and moved to the right, preventing any lateral movement of the CM.
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So even though the beam will be tracing a large circle around the hinge (or more likely swinging back and forth) we can call this translation? My reasoning was because the center of mass of the board is moving as it swings. Is that correct?.Scott said:
The Centre of Mass of the board would drop and move to the left so that would be looked upon as translation. To avoid this, you would need to (appropriately) raise the elbow joint and move it to the right. Then you would have only rotation.Scott said:
Even though not all movement vectors of the object are moving in space by the same amount in a given direction, we can still call this translation?sophiecentaur said:
Why not? The translation doesn't need to be in a straight line or in a chosen direction. We are talking in terms of translation of the CM.physics gal said:
Yes, you can decompose the same motion into rotation and translation in different ways.physics gal said: