Roll without Slip

When studying the dynamics of systems with wheels, gears, and rollers of various types, it is important to understand the kinematics of rolling without slipping. On this page we take a close look at this kinematic constraint.

List of Links

• Calculating Velocity with Cross Products.
• A more Qualitative Approach to Thinking of the Velocity Kinematics.
• Velocity from the Perspective of the Instantaneous Center. (coming soon, maybe)
• Acceleration of the Point of Contact.

Calculating Velocity with Cross Products

A bicycle is traveling with constant velocity. What are the velocities of various points on the front wheel? We calculate velocities using cross products.

A more Qualitative Approach to thinking of the Velocity Kinematics

The previous video had a bunch of cross products. Here, we answer the same questions without cross products. Instead, we use the concept of relative velocity, more qualitatively.

Acceleration of the Point of Contact

After coming to grips of the fact that the velocity of the contact point of a wheel is momentarily zero, students often believe that the acceleration should be zero too. But this is not true, exactly. In the video below, we calculate the acceleration of the contact point.