Jackson, David P., Julia Huddy, Adam Baldoni, and William Boyes. The Mysterious Spinning Cylinder---Rigid-Body Motion That is Full of Surprises. American Journal of Physics 87, no. 2 (2019): 85-94. https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1119/1.5086391

We explore the steady-state rotational motion of a cylinder on a flat horizontal surface from a pedagogical perspective. We show that the cylinder's inclination angle depends on its rotational velocity in a surprisingly subtle manner, including both stable and unstable solutions as well as a forbidden region with no (real) solutions. Moreover, the cylinder's behavior undergoes a qualitative change as the aspect ratio decreases below a critical value. Using a high-speed video, we measure the inclination angle as a function of rotation speed and demonstrate good agreement with the theoretical predictions. All aspects of the analysis are well within the capabilities of undergraduate students, making this an ideal system to explore in courses or as an independent project.

This published version is made available on Dickinson Scholar with the permission of the publisher. For more information on the published version, visit AAPT's Website. © 2019 American Association of Physics Teachers. All rights reserved The Mysterious Spinning Cylinder---Rigid-Body Motion That is Full of Surprises is featured on the cover of the February 2019 issue of American Journal of Physics, view on the American Association of Physics Teacher's Website.