Research on the bidirectional sliding phenomena of a toppling rod under frictional situations

Abstract

In this work, we investigated the phenomenon of spontaneous bidirectional sliding on a toppling rod under a frictional situation. We explained the reasons for sliding is the friction force from the table is not sufficient to support the horizontal acceleration of the mass center when toppling, so the rod itself has to obtain a horizontal acceleration and apply the inertia force to play the role of supporting the acceleration of the mass center. This phenomenon and converted the question into a mathematical model. We pick the contacting point between the rod and the horizontal surface as the reference point for our computing of physical quantity, therefore the torque caused by friction and normal force can be ignored. With this model, we finished the theoretical analysis of the effects of varying static friction and dynamic friction coefficients on the phenomenon, with computer simulations verified.