The General Motion of a Rigid Body

Abstract

In the previous chapters we have considered rotations of rigid bodies possessing a high degree of symmetry. We have seen that the rotational motion of such a body around an axis fixed in inertial space and fixed relative to the body is as simple to describe as the motion of a single particle moving along a straight line. The same equations govern the motion in these two cases, when p is substituted for L, and v is substituted for ω, etc.