Theoretical Mechanics II - Homework 2

Due date: 04/12/2017

Problem 1. (Moment of inertia tensor) Find the moment of inertia tensor with respect to
the symmetry center for the following objects. What are the principal axes and moments?
Assume a uniform density.
(a) A two-dimensional circular hoop of radius R, negligible thickness, and mass M .
(b) A spherical shell of radius R and mass M .
(c) Three equal mass points are located at (a, 0, 0), (0, a, 2a), and (0, 2a, a). Find the inertia
tensor with respect to the origin, and the principal axes and principal moments.

Problem 2. (Eulers equations for an asymmetric top; Hand & Finch 8.21) A book is an
asymmetric top, with no two moments of inertia equal. Assuming I1 < I2 < I3 , you can
demonstrate experimentally that the motion is stable if the rotation is started about either
the 1 or 3 axis but unstable if started about the 2 axis (check out the link here). To prove
this, consider three different situations:
(a)
~ (t = 0) = (1, 0, 0) + (x , y , z ). This means that the book is rotating almost
around the axis 1 at t = 0 but has a small deviation from this, (x , y , z ).
(b)
~ (t = 0) = (0, 1, 0) + (x , y , z ). This means that the book is rotating almost
around the axis 2 at t = 0 but has a small deviation from this, (x , y , z ).
(c)
~ (t = 0) = (0, 0, 1) + (x , y , z ). This means that the book is rotating almost
around the axis 3 at t = 0 but has a small deviation from this, (x , y , z ).
Write the Eulers equations in each case, ignoring terms of order 2 . From these linearized
Eulers equations, you can determine the evolution of the small deviation, therefore you can
prove that small perturbations around axis 2 are unstable.

Problem 3. (Nutation) A busker is planning to perform an act of balancing a spinning

spherical ball of radius 0.1 m on his/her fingertip. The busker can choose either a solid
ball (uniform density) or a hollow ball (mass only uniformly distributed on the surface) to
perform this act. Assume both balls have the same mass, which ball would you recommend
the busker to use? And why? (check out the link here)
Hint: This is the same heavy symmetric top problem as discussed in class and the pivot

1
point is in contact with the fingertip. A smaller nutation angle around = 0 leads to a stable
spinning ball. You will have to calculate the principal moment of inertia for the solid ball
and the hollow ball in order to assess the stability of the spinning ball.

Problem 4. (Heavy symmetric top) To get familiar with calculations we show in class,
lets extend our discussion a bit further. A symmetric top (I1 = I2 > I3 , but I1 and I3 are
comparable) nutates between 1 and 2 , and just vanishes at 2 as depicted in the figure
below. You can set up this system easily by simply releasing the spinning symmetric top
with = = 0 at 2 initially. Please show that in the limit that the rotational kinetic
energy is much greater than the potential energy, 12 I3 32  M g`, the nutation amplitude
(i.e., 1 2 ) becomes smaller as 3 increases.