Faster than gravity accelerations and the resulting trajectories in a sliding particle and wedge system (Q1107338)
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English | Faster than gravity accelerations and the resulting trajectories in a sliding particle and wedge system |
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Faster than gravity accelerations and the resulting trajectories in a sliding particle and wedge system (English)
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1988
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An analysis is given of the mathematical model of a system from the mechanics of rigid bodies, in which a wedge slides smoothly along a horizontal surface under the influence of a particle sliding along the (smooth) sloping surface of the wedge. It is shown that, for certain values of the wedge angle, the acceleration of a wedge with a given mass can be made larger than the gravitational ``g'', and indeed arbitrarily large, by choosing a particle of sufficiently large mass. Various properties of the particle's parabolic path are then derived. In particular, a bifurcation in the particle's horizontal range is shown to occur for a certain critical value of the wedge angle and the particle- wedge mass ratio.
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mechanics of rigid bodies
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wedge slides
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