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Dynamics of a Sliding Rod in a Loop

A rod slides inside a wire loop mounted in a vertical plane. The rod's center of mass X forms an angle θ with the vertical. The equation governing θ̇ is derived using the rod's moment of inertia, kinetic energy, and gravitational potential energy. Taking the derivative and linearizing for small oscillations yields an equation for the angular frequency of oscillations about the stable equilibrium point at θ = 0.

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Sai Swetha KV
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387 views1 page

Dynamics of a Sliding Rod in a Loop

A rod slides inside a wire loop mounted in a vertical plane. The rod's center of mass X forms an angle θ with the vertical. The equation governing θ̇ is derived using the rod's moment of inertia, kinetic energy, and gravitational potential energy. Taking the derivative and linearizing for small oscillations yields an equation for the angular frequency of oscillations about the stable equilibrium point at θ = 0.

Uploaded by

Sai Swetha KV
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Worked Example

A Rod Sliding Inside a Wire Loop


A uniform rod of length 2a slides around the inside
of a smooth circular wire loop mounted in a vertical
plane, with its end-points attached to the loop. Denote
by X the centre of the rod, and by O the centre of the
loop. Show that
2 =

a2

6gb
(cos cos )
+ 3b2

(1)

where b is the length OX, is the angle between OX


and the vertical and is the maximum value of .
Find also the frequency of small oscillations about the
stable equilibrium.
1
The moment of inertia of the rod about its mid-point X is I = 12
M (2a)2 = 13 M a2 ,
where M is the mass of the rod. The kinetic energy of the rod is therefore
1
2
2 M (b)

+ 12 ( 31 M a2 )2 ,

because the speed of the centre of mass X is b and the kinetic energy relative to X is
1 2
2 I . (Note that, relative to the centre of mass, the rod is simply rotating in a vertical
plane with being the angle between the rod and the horizontal.) The potential energy
is M gb cos (taking O as the zero of potential energy). Combining these results,
1 1 2
2(3a

+ b2 )2 gb cos = E/M

where E, the total energy, is constant. Evaluating E at = (where = 0 since it is


a maximum of ) we obtain E/M = gb cos . The result follows.
Differentiating (1) with respect to time and dividing by we obtain
2 =

a2

6gb
sin .
+ 3b2

Equilibrium points (where = 0) are therefore, as expected, at = 0 and , which are


obviously stable and unstable respectively. For small oscillations in which  1, we
approximate sin by , so that
+

a2

3gb
= 0;
+ 3b2

the (angular) frequency of oscillations is therefore


r
3gb
.
2
a + 3b2

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