Rotations of the Rigid Body

Abstract

In this chapter we consider rotations of a rigid body around a fixed point. That is, we study motions of a body in the three-dimensional space such that:

• distances between all points in the body remain fixed (rigidity), and

• there is a point in the body that stays immovable during motion (fixed point).

We consider both free motions (in the absence of external forces) and controlled motions (when external forces are applied in order to bring the body to a desired state).