Physics Quiz 3

[Ninja_Bait]

Originally Posted by SenorZ

I'm thinking one of us needs to build this (massless rod might be tough to find...) and put a piece of paper under the wheel and see which way the paper flies.

I did a quick model in LEGO, but it's kind of crummy, since obviously I don't have a frictionless pivot or massless rod. I might film it and post it, though.

@ Ether: Sorry to confuse you; I accidentally hit submit instead of preview and had to go back to finish editing. :\ Lesson learned in clarity of answer as well. However, I'm glad I was right about direction. That makes everything better.

I'm very interested by John's last answer. It seems that friction is always tau/(rsin(theta)) and parallel to the rod, pointing away from the pivot, no matter the conditions. Is that the end result?