Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 ia Paper 4 11C i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Let be a Cartesian basis fixed in the rotating frame. A vector then satisfiesbecause a derivative of a body-fixed basis vector is . Applying this transport formula twice to gives, for constant ,The second and third terms correspond to Coriolis acceleration and centrifugal acceleration in the rotating description.
For the bead, use cylindrical unit vectors with upward andProjection of along the wire tangent eliminates the smooth-wire normal force and gives
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 2 8D Solution Created 2026-09-23 Updated 2026-10-03
A fixed space frame is an inertial orthonormal frame whose axes remain fixed in space. A principal body frame is attached to the rigid body and aligned with the principal axes of its inertia tensor, so that the tensor is diagonal with entries .
If are the body axes and is the angular velocity, then the derivative of a body-fixed basis vector isIn the principal frame,For torque-free motion, the angular momentum has zero space derivative. ThereforeTaking body-frame components gives the Euler equations for a torque-free rigid body:
For an axisymmetric body, put and let be its symmetry axis. Decompose . ThenThus is a linear combination of and , proving that the angular momentum, angular velocity, and symmetry axis are always coplanar. This is the coplanarity in a torque-free axisymmetric rigid body.