Hi all,
The question came up recently on Tom Wishon's forum regarding the most stable plane of shaft oscillation (if there is such a thing). Assume a simple shaft with more and less stiff bending planes (hence higher and lower frequency planes), 90* apart. Is one of these two planes more stable in lateral oscillation than the other? If so, why? Another way of posing the question is if you twang the shaft in a plane half way between the two (at 45* to either) and wait for the shaft oscillations to decay into a single plane, which will it be?
Thanks,
Alan Brooks
