Slowing a rotating circle.

crodragn

New member
Joined
Mar 14, 2012
Messages
2
Working on a programming project and hit a math problem that frankly my math is too rusty to solve. I believe this is a calculus problem, though not certain and could be making it more complex than it actually is.

I have a circle rotating at R rad/second. The "front" of the circle is along vector v1, which is of course changing as the circle rotates. I need to align the circle to vector v2, which is constant. I can slow the circles rotation at a max rate of ∆Smax rad/second2, which is probably less than R.

At what angle Ɵ between v1 and v2 ​should I begin deceleration, and (less importantly) how much time T will I need to decelerate it for? My hangup is that once deceleration starts R is no longer constant, so figuring out the amounted rotated after that point is a challenge.
 
Last edited:
Simply writing the problem out like this to ask for help actually seems to have done the trick. Realizing that what I was actually after was the amount rotated after deceleration started changed it from what I thought was a calculus issue to a rather simple physics issue:
Ɵ=-(v1)2/2S.

Thanks for the, um, sounding board I suppose, hehe.
 
Top