An Elementary Treatment of the Theory of Spinning Tops and Gyroscopic Motion (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from An Elementary Treatment of the Theory of Spinning Tops and Gyroscopic Motion The object of this book is to bring within the range of the abler Mathematicians at our Public Schools and of First Year undergraduates at the Universities, a subject which has hitherto been considered too difficult for any but the more advanced students in Mathematics, while even they have in many cases failed to derive more pleasure from the study of spinning tops than is contained in submitting the problem to the action of a complicated piece of Mathematical machinery which automatically, though unintelligently, turns out the correct result. In this attempt to present an elementary, and at the same time a scientific view of the subject, I have expanded several of the suggestive ideas put forward in Dynamics of Rotation by Professor Worthington, to whom is due a large debt of thanks for much liberal criticism and assistance in the earlier chapters, and for permission to borrow his article on Brennan's Monorail. In my other critics I have been similarly fortunate. Dr. Besant, Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, read and commented on several chapters in their first edition of manuscript; and in dedicating this volume to him I have endeavoured to express the interest in the subject, and the love of it, which I owe to his inspiring teaching. Professor Hopkinson of the Engineering Laboratory at Cambridge has also read certain portions, while much assistance has been rendered by my friend and late colleague Mr. W. M. Page, Fellow of Kings College, Cambridge, with whom I have spent many pleasant hours discussing various points. Lastly, the whole work has been carefully criticised by Mr. G. Bistwistle, Fellow and Principal Mathematical Lecturer of Pembroke College, Cambridge, to whom my sincerest thanks are due for much time devoted to the book and for many valuable suggestions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.