eli5 Why can’t an object rotate around multiple directions?

292 viewsOtherPhysics

I can imagine a pencil rotating about an axis parallel to its length and perpendicular to its length at the same time and I have also seen several self balancing mechanisms online (got no idea wt that is) where a ball spins in multiple directions

So what do they mean by an object can only have one axis of rotation?

In: Physics

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

There is a place I need to be standing. It is located 4 steps to the east, and 3 steps north. I walk 5 steps in a diagonal northeast and arrive at my destination. I didn’t travel north or east; I traveled northeast. Ignoring cardinal directions, this is true for any line in 2 dimensions, we can split our direction vector into its components, but that doesn’t change the direction we went. The same is true in 3D (and in fact we can still use the Pythagorean theorem)! If we wish to travel 3 steps north, 4 steps east, and 5 steps directly up, We can travel about 7 steps to arrive at our destination in space.

You are viewing 1 out of 5 answers, click here to view all answers.