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if I will push brick in space like drawn on first picture, is it will fly to same direction? If so, if I have brick with weight 1kg, and I gave impulse with (1kg * 1m/s) * 1s, should I just move force vector to it centroid? Or I should somehow reduce it for rotation?

Also, if I will push same brick as drawn on second image, should I move force vector to centroid? Or it movement direction will be same as on first image?

enter image description here

Qmechanic
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degr
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1 Answers1

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The question is a little unclear. In both figures, if you applied a short impulse at the point and in the direction shown, the brick would move in the direction of the respective force vectors, and also spin clockwise. The second figure would produce a little faster translation and a little slower rotation that the first figure.

If the force is applied over an extended time, you would need to know the location, magnitude and direction of the force vector over time as the brick rotates. In other words, is the force applied to the same point on the brick, or is it applied to whatever part of the brick aligns with the original force vector as the brick rotates? Either way, that's a difficult problem.

The only way to get pure translation with no rotation is to apply the force so that its vector passes through the brick's center of mass.

As to the last part of your question: the amount of energy that goes into the brick (force times distance) is divided into the spinning and the translation. In other words, the rotational energy and kinetic energy must sum to the energy applied by the impulse.