Re: [math-fun] spherical pendulums?

Here's a related problem: A point particle of mass M (i.e., zero moment of inertia) is sliding frictionlessly around inside a vertical cylinder; gravity is downwards of strength G. What are the paths? Ditto with a vertical cone instead of a cylinder. At 12:44 AM 12/5/2011, Bill Gosper wrote:

Are they chaotic or just hairy? The Wolfram demonstration seems quasiperiodic.? Gene once disabused me of the folly of trying to resolve the motion into x and y. But suppose we hung the string from the inside of an upward cusp of a cycloid of revolution. Would the pendulum simply describe an ellipse? --rwg