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Suppose there is a ball in a frictionless tube and that they have the same diameter. If the tube is doing anticlockwise uniform circular motion about one end of it, starting from a horizontal position, what should be the path of the ball? Should the ball move vertically?

Just like this enter image description here

I roughly made some calculation, and it turned out that the ball should only move vertically for particular combinations of angular velocity and the initial distance between the ball and the centre of the circular motion. Am I right?

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  • $\begingroup$ A picture or more description might help, it's hard to understand what the setup is. What axis are things rotating around, where does the ball start, etc? It sounds like there is no part of the tube that's stationary - if the ball is in the tube, and the entire tube is moving vertically, so is the ball. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 19, 2022 at 17:42
  • $\begingroup$ what is the initial position of the ball? Also how does the tube start its uniform motion? Is gravity present? $\endgroup$
    – John
    Commented Oct 19, 2022 at 17:42
  • $\begingroup$ I think in the last question you meant radially and not vertically. Also since there is no radial force you can start from there. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 19, 2022 at 18:13

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In a horizontal plane with no gravity, it should not be hard to prove that the polar coordinates of the mass are related by

$m \ddot{r} - m r \dot{\theta}^2 = 0$.

Being $\theta(t)$ prescribed, s.t. $\dot{\theta} = \Omega$, the equation for the only degree of freedom $r(t)$ reads

$\ddot{r} = \Omega^2 r$,

whose solution has the form

$r(t) = A e^{-\Omega t} + B e^{\Omega t}$.

Given the initial conditions about the radial position and velocity of the mass, you can easily determine the integration constants $A$ and $B$. As an example, if $\dot{r}(0) = 0$ and $r(0) = r_0$, the solution is

$r(t) = \dfrac{r_0}{2} \left[ e^{-\Omega t} + e^{\Omega t} \right]$.

If you want the description of the motion in Cartesian coordinates, you need to use the transformations $x = r \cos \theta$, $y = r \sin \theta$.

To give a clear answer to your question: no, the mass doesn't move on a vertical straight line.

Note 1. If the gravity can't be neglected, the dynamical equation becomes $m \ddot{r} - m r \dot{\theta}^2 = - m g \sin \theta$, that has no closed form solution.

Note 2. In the computation, I didn't care about how the motion of the tube begins. You told us that its angular velocity is $\Omega$ and constant, and this can be used as a prescribed condition.

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