Weebles Only Wobble But Eggs Fall Down

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Date

2017-12-22

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Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Abstract

Why does a roly-poly toy tend to stand upright on its less pointed end while an egg does not? The answer lies in a simple principle that governs the nature of the mechanical equilibrium of a solid of revolution. A roly-poly toy is at a stable equilibrium on its vertex while an egg is at an unstable equilibrium. The roly-poly toy's center of mass is vertically below the center of curvature of its vertex, while for the egg it is the other way around. Although this simple but powerful principle is known, in this article we present a contrasting analysis that not only verifies this principle, but also provides the answer to another interesting question: Is there another simple principle that governs the nature of the equilibrium in the critical situation where the center of curvature of the vertex happens to coincide with the center of mass?

Description

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Mathematics Magazine on 12/22/2017, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.4169/math.mag.90.2.99

Keywords

mechanical equilibrium, stable equilibrium, unstable equilibrium

Citation

De, S. (2017). Weebles Only Wobble But Eggs Fall Down. Mathematics Magazine, 90(2), 99-107.

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Article