James_Frogan
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I'm beginning to read about spinning tops and in particular, the Lagrange solutions for these tops.
1) When I solve the equations of motion for these tops (acting under gravity), the resultant motion is either looping or somewhat of a sinusoidal motion (see video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m8scBDIyWM"). However in reality I have yet to see a top behave in that way, they seem to have very steady precession (Euler's angle theta stays at zero). What is the reason for this?
2) Also, Wikipedia discusses three integrable cases for spinning tops (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange,_Euler_and_Kovalevskaya_tops" !). I only understand Lagrange solutions, not Hamiltonian, so it's not making too much sense to me (someone point me to an online source on Hamiltonian for beginners!). Are these special cases real life applications or somewhat theoretical (as like in point 1, where I cannot find a spinning top behaving in that manner)
Thanks for the help people!
1) When I solve the equations of motion for these tops (acting under gravity), the resultant motion is either looping or somewhat of a sinusoidal motion (see video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m8scBDIyWM"). However in reality I have yet to see a top behave in that way, they seem to have very steady precession (Euler's angle theta stays at zero). What is the reason for this?
2) Also, Wikipedia discusses three integrable cases for spinning tops (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange,_Euler_and_Kovalevskaya_tops" !). I only understand Lagrange solutions, not Hamiltonian, so it's not making too much sense to me (someone point me to an online source on Hamiltonian for beginners!). Are these special cases real life applications or somewhat theoretical (as like in point 1, where I cannot find a spinning top behaving in that manner)
Thanks for the help people!
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