Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2015 / ii / Paper 2 / 7D (Classical Dynamics)

The two cyclic Euler angles give conserved canonical momentaHere $L_3$ is the body-axis angular momentum and $L_z$ the vertical angular momentum. Thus ${\omega }_3=L_3/I_3$ is constant. Since the Lagrangian has no explicit time dependence, the energy is also conserved:These are the three independent conserved quantities furnished by the continuous symmetries of the heavy symmetric top.

Eliminate the cyclic velocities using $\dot{\varphi }=(L_z-L_3\cos \theta )/(I_1{\sin }^2\theta )$. The conserved energy becomesDifferentiating the effective potential giveswhich is also the $\theta$ Euler-Lagrange equation. Hence $I_1\ddot{\theta }=-V_{\mathrm{eff}}^{\prime }(\theta )$. Deriving it directly from the Euler-Lagrange equation ensures it also holds at turning points, where division by $\dot{\theta }$ in an energy argument would be invalid.

For nonvertical uniform precession of a heavy symmetric top, write $\dot{\varphi }=\Omega$ and fix $\theta$. The $\theta$ Euler-Lagrange equation reduces toFor $\cos \theta \ne 0$ its solutions areFor $0<\theta <\pi /2$, uniform precession therefore requires $|{\omega }_3|\ge 2\sqrt{I_{1}Mgl\cos \theta }/I_3$. For $\pi /2<\theta <\pi$, the discriminant is positive for every spin, including zero. At $\theta =\pi /2$, the condition is $\Omega =Mgl/(I_3{\omega }_3)$, requiring nonzero spin. Once this condition holds, choose $L_z=I_1\Omega {\sin }^2\theta +L_3\cos \theta$ and $\dot{\psi }={\omega }_3-\Omega \cos \theta$; both cyclic equations are then satisfied. The exactly vertical configurations are also solutions for arbitrary spin, but the azimuthal member of the Euler angles is degenerate there, so their existence is separate from this nonvertical discriminant condition.