Equilibria of plane convex bodies (Q2230557)

This paper concerns the equilibrium positions of a smooth plane convex body resting on a line. Both the center of gravity \(O\) and (in the final section) the inclination of the line are arbitrary. The authors show that the number of equilibrium positions of the body on a horizontal line is given by \(n=2-2m\), where \(m\) is the winding number of the evolute of the boundary with respect to \(O\). (The number \(m\) is always negative, but may be a half-integer if \(O\) lies on the evolute.) As a special case, they rederive the result of \textit{G. Domokos} et al. [J. Elasticity 36, No. 1, 59--66 (1994; Zbl 0846.70007)] that every homogeneous body (i.e., with the center of gravity at the centroid) has at least four equilibria. In the final section, they derive a stability criterion when the supporting line is inclined at an angle \(\alpha\) to the horizontal. This is used to derive several mildly surprising results for homogeneous bodies, including the following: \begin{itemize} \item A body may be stable on a floor with a certain slope, though its mirror image is not. \item For arbitrarily small nonzero slopes, a body on a sloping floor may have only one or two equilibria. \item Increasing the slope of the floor may increase the number of a body's equilibria. \end{itemize} It would be interesting to see this work generalized beyond two dimensions.