Arbitrarily Shaped Rigid Rotor
An arbitrarily shaped rigid rotor is a rigid body of arbitrary shape with its center of mass fixed (or in uniform rectilinear motion) in field-free space R3, so that its energy consists only of rotational kinetic energy (and possibly constant translational energy that can be ignored). A rigid body can be (partially) characterized by the three eigenvalues of its moment of inertia tensor, which are real nonnegative values known as principal moments of inertia. In microwave spectroscopy—the spectroscopy based on rotational transitions—one usually classifies molecules (seen as rigid rotors) as follows:
- spherical rotors
- symmetric rotors
- oblate symmetric rotors
- prolate symmetric rotors
- asymmetric rotors
This classification depends on the relative magnitudes of the principal moments of inertia.
Read more about this topic: Rigid Rotor
Famous quotes containing the words arbitrarily, shaped and/or rigid:
“History is not a book, arbitrarily divided into chapters, or a drama chopped into separate acts: it has flowed forward. Rome is a continuity, called “eternal.” What has accumulated in this place acts on everyone, day and night, like an extra climate.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)
“The family circle has widened. The worldpool of information fathered by the electric media—movies, Telstar, flight—far surpasses any possible influence mom and dad can now bring to bear. Character no longer is shaped by only two earnest, fumbling experts. Now all the world’s a sage.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“They work, and age, and put off men
By being unattractive, or too shy,
Or having morals anyhow, none give in:
Some of them go quite rigid with disgust
At anything but marriage....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)