Spinning Top with Constant Precession and Zero Nutation

November 29th, 2012

Problem

We look to examine the dynamics of the spinning top in gure 1 to compute an expression that relates the precession with the spin of the top. We make the following assumptions. The spinning top is stationary at point p. The precession is constant and the nutation is 0 i.e. = 0 and = 0. The top

Figure 1: Symmetric Heavy Top with Constant Precession and Zero Nutation is precessing at the rate of and spinning at the rate of . We also assume the spin rate of the top will not slow down due to friction i.e. = 0. We dene a rotating frame of reference F that is precessing at the rate of with the coordinate system {e1 , e2 , e3 }.

 The angular velocity of the spinning top is B i.e. 1 = . B 2 3

(1)

The angular velocity of the rotating frame F is F , which is equal to the angular velocity of the spinning top minus the spin of the top i.e. 1 = . (2) F 2 3 The moment of inertia tensor of the top is I0 0 I = 0 I0 0 0

0 0 . I

(3)

dL Now we can use Eulers equation = M p . The angular momentum is dt L = I B and in a rotating frame F, we have w dL = I b + F I b = M p . dt where the rotation tensor is . (4)

0 F = 3 2

3 + 0 1

2 1 . 0

(5)

The moment is M p = pc.g. F gravity . We have the force of gravity r being 0 (6) F gravity = mg sin () mg cos () and pc.g. is r 0 0 . (7) r So now we have for the sum of moments about point p mgr sin () . 0 M p = 0

(8)

Substitute (1), (2), (3), (5), and (8) into (4), we get mgr sin () = I0 1 + (I I0 ) 2 3 + I0 2 0 = I0 2 + (I0 I) 1 3 I0 1 0 = I 3 (9)

We can rewrite the spinning tops angular velocity components i in terms of the rate of precession , the nutation angle and the spin rate . We get the following 1 = = 0 2 = sin () 3 = cos () + . Substitute (10) into (9), and simplify using the assumptions = 0, = 0 and = 0. We get the following mgr sin () = (I I0 ) sin () ( cos () + ) + I0 sin () which reduces to just mgr = I + (I I0 ) 2 cos () (12) (11)

(10)

Now we are going to assume the top is spinning at a much faster rate than it is precessing i.e. >> . With this assumption, we can cross out the 2 term in (12) and it becomes mgr = I (13) or mgr . (14) I The rate of precession is inversely proportional to the spin rate of the top. =