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sculpture

Helping the artists

An artist has created a mobile sculpture consisting of two smooth metallic spheres with diameters D=1 m and 2D, connected by a very thin, rigid, horizontal rod, which is mounted on a vertical shaft, so that it can rotate, as shown in the figure below.
a) Determine whether this system will tend to rotate when horizontal wind blows with a speed of 3 m/s; if so, indicate the sense of rotation on a top view.
b) If the surfaces of both spheres become covered with bird droppings, explain any changes to your previous answer.

 

Contributed by Stavros Tavoularis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.

The copyright on these problems is held by the contributors. Permission must be sought before using them in any way.