Can someone check my answer to a rotational problem?

  • Thread starter toesockshoe
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In summary, the problem involves a stick with a point mass colliding and adhering to it. The resulting motion can be found by setting the initial and final angular momentums equal to each other and solving for the final angular velocity. It is important to take a non-accelerating reference point and account for the post-impact momentum of the stick's center and the point mass.
  • #36
haruspex said:
Not exactly. It's wrong because the particle's angular momentum about the point in space where the mass centre of the stick had been is not just ##m_pb^2\omega_f##. There is also the ##m_pv_{fs}b## term. Look at your relative velocity equation.

I'll try once more... IT SHOULD NOT BE QUADRATIC! You appear to be adding up energies, not angular momenta.
ok so [itex] v_{fs} = \frac { m_pv_{fs}- m_p\omega b}{m_p + m_s} [/itex]
 
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  • #37
haruspex said:
Not exactly. It's wrong because the particle's angular momentum about the point in space where the mass centre of the stick had been is not just ##m_pb^2\omega_f##. There is also the ##m_pv_{fs}b## term. Look at your relative velocity equation.

I'll try once more... IT SHOULD NOT BE QUADRATIC! You appear to be adding up energies, not angular momenta.
ok, so let's say that the mass hit the stick at an angle... thus sending the stick in a somewhat diagonal direction. in this case, you would need to add the L=r x p to the stick as well right? (in addition to doing hte similar thing to the point mass_
 
  • #38
toesockshoe said:
ok so [itex] v_{fs} = \frac { m_pv_{fs}- m_p\omega b}{m_p + m_s} [/itex]
Not quite. The ##v_{fs}## on the right-hand side should be a different variable.
toesockshoe said:
lets say that the mass hit the stick at an angle... thus sending the stick in a somewhat diagonal direction. in this case, you would need to add the L=r x p to the stick as well right? (in addition to doing hte similar thing to the point mass
Your question is not precise enough for me to answer.
As I say, there are several approaches that work - the trick is to use one consistently and not count any momentum contributions twice over or not at all.
If you care to post the algebra for such an oblique impact I'm happy to check it.
 
  • #39
haruspex said:
Not quite. The ##v_{fs}## on the right-hand side should be a different variable.
[itex] v_{fs} = \frac { m_pv_{pi}- m_p\omega b}{m_p + m_s} [/itex]

haruspex said:
Not quite. The ##v_{fs}## on the right-hand side should be a different variable.
Your question is not precise enough for me to answer.
As I say, there are several approaches that work - the trick is to use one consistently and not count any momentum contributions twice over or not at all.
If you care to post the algebra for such an oblique impact I'm happy to check it.
sorry i copied it wrong to latex... this is what i have:

Disregard me other question... basically we did r x p on the mass and v happened to be v_stick + wb... would you say that in problems where there is translational speed its a good idea to always use r x p for a point mass?
 
  • #40
haruspex said:
Not quite. The ##v_{fs}## on the right-hand side should be a different variable.

Your question is not precise enough for me to answer.
As I say, there are several approaches that work - the trick is to use one consistently and not count any momentum contributions twice over or not at all.
If you care to post the algebra for such an oblique impact I'm happy to check it.
also can you explain to me how to find that [itex] v_{pf} = v_{sf} + \omega b[/itex] ? to be i just used it cause it made sense conceptually, but how would you show your work to get that naswer?
 
  • #41
toesockshoe said:
... basically we did r x p on the mass and v happened to be v_stick + wb... would you say that in problems where there is translational speed its a good idea to always use r x p for a point mass?
Yes.
toesockshoe said:
also can you explain to me how to find that [itex] v_{pf} = v_{sf} + \omega b[/itex] ? to be i just used it cause it made sense conceptually, but how would you show your work to get that naswer?
It's just relative velocity. This only applies here at the instant after collision, note. In the direction of the particle's original motion, the stick gets a velocity ##v_{fs}##, and the particle's velocity relative to that is ##\omega b##, in the same direction, so the two add to give the particle's total velocity. Later, of course, as the stick rotates, the relative velocity will be in a different direction from the system's mass centre, but we don't need to worry about that.
 
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