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Old 11-16-2007, 07:36 PM
Borodog Borodog is offline
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Default Re: An Interesting Physics Problem

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Not at all how I solved it, but just effective.

I will say the choice of placing your axis of rotation through the point of contact seems conceptually strange to me, since the sphere is simply rotating about an axis through it's center of mass. To each his own though!

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This approach is typically taught in undergrad engineering courses as one alternative method of solving these types rigid body dynamics problems. It has the advantage that the point of contact is an instantaneous inertially fixed axis of rotation, which can simplify some problems that have a center of mass which is both translating and rotating, like the one you posted.

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Yeah, that makes sense.

In fact I probably learned that 15 years ago. Bit decay. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]
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