English

Tumbling Downhill along a Given Curve

Mathematical Physics 2024-06-25 v1 Differential Geometry math.MP Classical Physics

Abstract

A cylinder will roll down an inclined plane in a straight line. A cone will roll around a circle on that plane and then will stop rolling. We ask the inverse question: For which curves drawn on the inclined plane R2\mathbb{R}^2 can one carve a shape that will roll downhill following precisely this prescribed curve and its translationally repeated copies? This simple question has a solution essentially always, but it turns out that for most curves, the shape will return to its initial orientation only after crossing a few copies of the curve - most often two copies will suffice, but some curves require an arbitrarily large number of copies.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2406.16336,
  title  = {Tumbling Downhill along a Given Curve},
  author = {Jean-Pierre Eckmann and Yaroslav I. Sobolev and Tsvi Tlusty},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.16336},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T17:16:47.981Z