Paper 2, Section I, A
Part II, 2014
The components of the angular velocity of a rigid body and of the position vector are given in a body frame.
(a) The kinetic energy of the rigid body is defined as
Given that the centre of mass is at rest, show that can be written in the form
where the explicit form of the tensor should be determined.
(b) Explain what is meant by the principal moments of inertia.
(c) Consider a rigid body with principal moments of inertia and , which are all unequal. Derive Euler's equations of torque-free motion
(d) The body rotates about the principal axis with moment of inertia . Derive the condition for stable rotation.