zerotwoone Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 If a disc was spinning in microgravity, and while the disc was spinning, the disc ejected some mass. The ejected mass would continue to travel in the in the direction of tangential velocity, but what would happen to the disc? Would it be pushed in the opposite direction of the ejected mass's tangential velocity? I am speculating that this is so, but I am not sure since I do not have access to microgravity to experiment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 Yes. Both linear and angular momentum would be conserved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robittybob1 Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 If a disc was spinning in microgravity, and while the disc was spinning, the disc ejected some mass. The ejected mass would continue to travel in the in the direction of tangential velocity, but what would happen to the disc? Would it be pushed in the opposite direction of the ejected mass's tangential velocity? ... If it was a chunk from the perimeter the disc would then become unbalanced. I don't know the physics of the situation after that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 If it was a chunk from the perimeter the disc would then become unbalanced. I don't know the physics of the situation after that. Linear and angular momentum would be conserved. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.C.MacSwell Posted November 17, 2015 Share Posted November 17, 2015 If it was a chunk from the perimeter the disc would then become unbalanced. I don't know the physics of the situation after that. Simplest case…it would wobble off in the opposite direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robittybob1 Posted November 18, 2015 Share Posted November 18, 2015 Simplest case…it would wobble off in the opposite direction. That was roughly what I was thinking. The wobble is from the perspective of the original center point. Is there another COM around which it rotates? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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