The baton consists of a massless, stretchable, but unbendable rod with masses attached to both ends. The rod is encased in a square room. The two walls, the floor and the ceiling of the room are frictionless and perfectly resilliant. Therefore, the baton will lose no energy when it collides with any of the surfaces. When the demo begins, the baton sits up in the air at an angle to the floor.
Gravity pulls the baton down toward the floor.
When it reaches the floor, the blue end of the baton will bounce first, causing the baton to rotate about its center of mass. The controls at the bottom of the applet allow you to change the speed of the display, alter the masses of the two ends of the baton, change the spring constant of the baton, and lower the resilliance and add friction to the walls, floor and ceiling. The buttons above these input boxes allow you to add a marker for the center of mass, and make the center of mass leave a trail. Try the following experiments. Turn on the center of mass marker and the trail.