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Posted

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.

Posted

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?

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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.

Posted

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.

Posted

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.

Posted

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?

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