Re: qualitative moment of inertia

[David Bowman <David_Bowman@GEORGETOWNCOLLEGE.EDU>]

Regarding John Denker's latest example:

> Since there seems to be some interest in qualitative reasoning, here's
> another riddle for you.

Great!  The previous one with the coffee & tea cups was quite good.

> Suppose I take an ordinary uniform solid cube and skewer it with an axis
> that runs through an arbitrary point on one face, perhaps (X=1, Y=0.33,
> Z=pi/4), thence through the center and out the opposite
> face.  Question:  what can you say about the moment of inertia of the cube
> as it rotates about this axis?

This example is even better than the previous one.  John, did you dream
this up yourself, or did you see it elsewhere?

I'm impressed.  Do you have any more examples where these came from?  A
book on the wonders of various symmetries perhaps?

David Bowman
David_Bowman@georgetowncollege.edu