The discussion revolves around the stability of rigid body rotation about different axes, particularly focusing on the relationship between moment of inertia and stability. Participants explore the differences in behavior between rigid and non-rigid bodies in terms of rotational stability.
The discussion is active, with participants providing insights and questioning assumptions. Some guidance has been offered regarding the application of the perpendicular axis theorem, and there is an exploration of different interpretations of stability in rigid bodies.
Participants note that the object in question has negligible thickness, allowing it to be treated as a lamina, which may influence the moments of inertia being discussed. There is also mention of specific shapes, such as disks versus spheres, which may affect the analysis.
I'm no expert but I don't follow what you have written. If you look-up 'tennis racket theorem' you should find it helpful.Leo Liu said:
Here is my reasoning I came up with after looking at the wiki article:Steve4Physics said:
We do? I would not have thought one could be so general about rotation of non-rigid bodies.Leo Liu said:
Not so.Leo Liu said:
The question says the thickness is negligible. So we can treat the object as a lamina and use the perpendicular axis theorem. That should help you to establish the 3 moments of inertia are different and their relative sizes.Leo Liu said:
Well I was thinking that a non rigid body might dissipate energy through heat. But yeah what I said was too absolute.haruspex said:
Sorry just realized they are disks as opposed to spheres.haruspex said:
