Physics Commons^™

Modeling Gyrating Motion Using Mathematica, Jonathan Alvarado-Gomez

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

In this report I will describe a method of creating animations of gyrating objects in Mathematica [4]. There are 4 inputs to a function called trajectory, which are a time step, maximum time duration, initial force vector, and a 3x3 matrix that represents a tensor for the gyration of the object. I utilized the computer program Mathematica [4] to create 3D images of a gyrating object in the object frame of view. A collection of these images were put together in order to make an animation, which can be used as a tool for future researchers to investigate interesting paths …