A set of four masses is formed into a square of side l using four wires that have negligible mass, as shown, by astronauts who took physics, are bored, and need to pass the time in the ISS. They amuse themselves by trying to predict the motion of weird objects like this in the apparent zero gravity (remember gravity acts on everything in the ISS and on the ISS itself, but all objects are in free fall toward the center of Earth at the
same rate as the ISS and so appear to have no gravity on them!) inside the ISS.
**You can pick and choose questions that you would like to answer. Any help is appreciated:
(A) Where is the center of mass of the object?
(B) What is the moment of inertia of the object for rotations about and axis through its center of mass and perpendicular to the plane of the square? You may treat each of the four masses as point masses (their radii are small compared to l).
Tags: