| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name
 | Date | Lines | 
|---|
| 1752.1 |  | AUSSIE::GARSON | nouveau pauvre | Sun May 23 1993 00:40 | 3 | 
|  |     re .0
    
    Sounds like you need some PHYSICS to answer this.
 | 
| 1752.2 | Differential equation | IOSG::CARLIN | Dick Carlin IOSG, Reading, England | Sun May 23 1993 04:00 | 10 | 
|  |     Derek, you're right, it is physics. But I soon got to the point where 
    the angle swept by the body satisfies the differential equation (wrt 
    time):
    
         y'' = c * sin(y)    y(0) = 0, y'(0) = 0
    
    which I suppose is still physics though. Differential equations are so 
    messy, give me number theory any day.
    
    Dick
 | 
| 1752.3 | 2nd try | IOSG::CARLIN | Dick Carlin IOSG, Reading, England | Mon May 24 1993 05:19 | 42 | 
|  |     Well, I think honour may be restored. .2 in isolation was really a dead
    end.
   If penguin has traversed angle y
   Resolving along tangent:
   	m*g*sin(y) = m*r*y'' (I) ( ' = differential wrt time)
   and along normal:
   	m*g*cos(y) - N = m*r*(y')� (II) ( N = normal force, not constant)
   Differentiate (II):
   	-m*g*sin(y)*y' - N' = 2*m*r*y'*y''
   Eliminate y'' using (I):
   	N' = -3*m*g*sin(y)*y'
   Integrate:
    	N = 3*m*g*cos(y) + C (that came out suspiciously conveniently,
    	                      implying that this is an over-complicated
                              way of deriving it)
   Initial condition N = m*g when y = 0, so C = -2*m*g:
   	N = 3*m*g*cos(y) - 2*m*g
   Penguin becomes airborne when N = 0, ie:
   	cos(y) = 2/3         (just over 1/2 way round)
    	------------
   So it seems that trying to solve for y in terms of t was
   	(a) unnecessary
   	(b) difficult
   					Dick
    
 | 
| 1752.4 |  | CSC32::D_DERAMO | Dan D'Eramo, Customer Support Center | Mon May 24 1993 15:22 | 9 | 
|  |         Computing y(t) is neat.  If the object starts at the top of
        the hemisphere with 0 kinetic energy, then it stays there
        forever.  If instead it starts at cos(y) = 2/3 with the exact
        amount of kinetic energy directed upwards to get back to the
        top with 0 kinetic energy left, then it takes forever to
        actually get to the top, although it does approach arbitrarily
        closely (going more and more slowly) as t -> oo.
        
        Dan
 |