Advanced Classical Physics, Autumn 2016 Problem Sheet 3

Please hand in the questions marked with (RF) to the Students Administration Office by 2pm on
Monday 31 October for marking. These questions will be covered in the Rapid Feedback session on
Friday 4 November.

1. (RF) Find the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the following matrices:

(a)  (b)  (c) 
1 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 1
0 2 0  0 2 −1 1 2 1
0 0 3 0 −1 2 1 1 2
2. (RF) Find the principal axes of inertia and the corresponding moments of inertia of the fol-
lowing systems rotating about their centres of mass (choose the origin to be at the centre of
mass):

(a) Two masses m1 and m2 separated by a light rod of length `.

(b) A water molecule, considered as a mass m1 connected by light rods of length ` to masses
m2 , the angular separation of the rods being 2θ.
(c) An ammonium molecule modelled as a regular tetrahedron of side a with a point mass m1
at one vertex, and three point masses m2 at the other vertices.

Indicate which of these, if any, are symmetric or totally symmetric bodies.

3. (RF)

(a) For a system of three identical mass points located at (a, 0, 0), (0, a, 2a) and (0, 2a, a),
find the principal moments of inertia and a set of principal axes.
(b) Calculate the rotational kinetic energy when the system rotates about the (1, 1, 1) axis with
angular velocity ω = 10 s−1 .
√ √
(c) A fourth identical
√ mass
√ is now located at (2, 3, 3)a. Given that the unit vector
ê = (0, 1/ 2, −1/ 2) identifies a principal axis for the new system, calculate the new
principal moment associated with this axis.

1
Advanced Classical Physics, Autumn 2016 Problem Sheet 3

4. (a) For a rotating rigid body the angular momentum L is related to the angular velocity ω via
L = I · ω, where I is the inertia tensor. If the body consists of a set of discrete masses mi
each located at (xi , yi , zi ), show that typical components of the inertia tensor in cartesian
co-ordinates are given by
X X
mi yi2 + zi2 , Ixy = −


Ixx = mi xi yi .
i i

You may assume the vector identity:

A × (B × C) = (A · C) B − (A · B) C . (1)

(b) What features of the inertia tensor enable it to be diagonalized (i.e. a co–ordinate system to
be found in which all off–diagonal elements are zero)? Draw a diagram indicating a choice
of principal axes for a uniform circular disc of mass M and radius a. For continuous
distributions of matter, the sums in the above expressions are replaced by integrals, with
mi being replaced by the mass element dm. Show that the principal moment about an
axis perpendicular to the disc through its centre is given by I1 = 12 M a2 , whilst the other
two principal moments are determined from
2M a2 +π/2 2 M a2
Z
I2 = I3 = sin θ cos2 θ dθ =
π −π/2 4
(You may assume the last equality without doing the integral.) [7 marks]

Figure 1:

(c) A disc of mass M = 3 kg and radius a = 0.2 m is constrained to spin at 50 revolutions

per second about a light axle placed along the x-axis as shown in Figure 1. Note that the
principal axis identified by the unit vector ê1 is constrained to precess about the x axis at
an angle of θ = 10◦ .
In the indicated cartesian frame the relevant components of the inertia tensor are given by
Ixx = I1 cos2 θ + I2 sin2 θ ,
1
Iyx = 2 (I1 − I2 ) cos ωt sin 2θ ,
1
Izx = 2 (I1 − I2 ) sin ωt sin 2θ .
Calculate the system kinetic energy and the magnitude of the couple on the axle.
[8 marks]
[TOTAL 20 marks]