Introduction to Classical Mechanics · Problem 9.7

Angular momentum, Part II (General L) — Morin

Physics — Mechanics · existence-of-principal-axes-for-a-pancake

Problem

Given a pancake object in the

x

y

plane, show that there exist principal axes by considering what happens to the integral

\int xy

when the coordinate axes are rotated about the origin by an angle of

\pi/2