Question

rotetional dynamics notes​

Answer 1

This chapter provides a short introduction into the main dynamical problems related to the rotational motion of celestial bodies. We start by considering various ways to characterize this motion and to derive the equations of motion. Although the main attention is given to the influence of the gravity torque on the rotational motion, the role of other torques is also briefly discussed. In an elementary way, we establish the key property of the non-resonant, slightly perturbed, rotational motion of a celestial body (under the action of gravity torque only) - the precession of the angular momentum vector around the normal to the orbital plane. The resonant spin-orbit coupling is considered as well.