Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE MECHANICAL UNIVERSE (Program 1)
- Chapter 2 THE LAW OF FALLING BODIES (Program 2)
- Chapter 3 THE LANGUAGE OF NATURE: DERIVATIVES AND INTEGRALS
- Chapter 4 INERTIA
- Chapter 5 VECTORS
- Chapter 6 NEWTON'S LAWS AND EQUILIBRIUM
- Chapter 7 UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION AND CIRCULAR MOTION
- Chapter 8 FORCES
- Chapter 9 FORCES IN ACCELERATING REFERENCE FRAMES
- Chapter 10 ENERGY: CONSERVATION AND CONVERSION
- Chapter 11 THE CONSERVATION OF MOMENTUM
- Chapter 12 OSCILLATORY MOTION
- Chapter 13 ANGULAR MOMENTUM
- Chapter 14 ROTATIONAL DYNAMICS FOR RIGID BODIES
- Chapter 15 GYROSCOPES
- Chapter 16 KEPLER'S LAWS AND THE CONIC SECTIONS
- Chapter 17 SOLVING THE KEPLER PROBLEM
- Chapter 18 NAVIGATING IN SPACE
- Chapter 19 TEMPERATURE AND THE GAS LAWS
- Chapter 20 THE ENGINE OF NATURE
- Chapter 21 ENTROPY
- Chapter 22 THE QUEST FOR LOW TEMPERATURE
- Appendix A THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM OF UNITS
- Appendix B CONVERSION FACTORS
- Appendix C FORMULAS FROM ALGEBRA, GEOMETRY, AND TRIGONOMETRY
- Appendix D ASTRONOMICAL DATA
- Appendix E PHYSICAL CONSTANTS
- SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Index
Chapter 13 - ANGULAR MOMENTUM
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE MECHANICAL UNIVERSE (Program 1)
- Chapter 2 THE LAW OF FALLING BODIES (Program 2)
- Chapter 3 THE LANGUAGE OF NATURE: DERIVATIVES AND INTEGRALS
- Chapter 4 INERTIA
- Chapter 5 VECTORS
- Chapter 6 NEWTON'S LAWS AND EQUILIBRIUM
- Chapter 7 UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION AND CIRCULAR MOTION
- Chapter 8 FORCES
- Chapter 9 FORCES IN ACCELERATING REFERENCE FRAMES
- Chapter 10 ENERGY: CONSERVATION AND CONVERSION
- Chapter 11 THE CONSERVATION OF MOMENTUM
- Chapter 12 OSCILLATORY MOTION
- Chapter 13 ANGULAR MOMENTUM
- Chapter 14 ROTATIONAL DYNAMICS FOR RIGID BODIES
- Chapter 15 GYROSCOPES
- Chapter 16 KEPLER'S LAWS AND THE CONIC SECTIONS
- Chapter 17 SOLVING THE KEPLER PROBLEM
- Chapter 18 NAVIGATING IN SPACE
- Chapter 19 TEMPERATURE AND THE GAS LAWS
- Chapter 20 THE ENGINE OF NATURE
- Chapter 21 ENTROPY
- Chapter 22 THE QUEST FOR LOW TEMPERATURE
- Appendix A THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM OF UNITS
- Appendix B CONVERSION FACTORS
- Appendix C FORMULAS FROM ALGEBRA, GEOMETRY, AND TRIGONOMETRY
- Appendix D ASTRONOMICAL DATA
- Appendix E PHYSICAL CONSTANTS
- SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Index
Summary
Whereupon I computed what would be the Orb described by the Planets. … I found now that whatsoever was the law of the forces which kept the Planets in their Orbs, the areas described by a Radius drawn from them to the Sun would be proportional to the time in which they were described.
Isaac NewtonROTARY MOTION
The world is full of things that exhibit rotary motion. They range in size from galaxies to electrons orbiting around atoms, and they include such familiar objects as orbiting planets, amusement park rides, flywheels, and bathtub vortices. What underlying principle explains the persistence of such motions? Can we describe them all in a unified way?
In Chapter 7 we studied two partial answers to such questions. One was that the moon circles the earth (or a planet circles the sun) by falling toward it continuously. Another was that an object can undergo uniform circular motion if a centripetal acceleration of magnitude v2/r is supplied. But the first answer is restricted to gravitational attraction, the second is restricted to the special case of uniform circular motion, and each addresses the persistence of such motion rather obliquely.
The concept that unifies the description of all rotary motion is angular momentum and the persistence of such motions is most directly described in terms of the conservation of angular momentum.
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- The Mechanical UniverseMechanics and Heat, Advanced Edition, pp. 335 - 362Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1986