LAUSR

The purpose of this study is essentially pedagogical and aims to provide an additional argument in clarification of a question often raised by first-year undergraduate mechanical engineering students concerning the reason for using two frames of reference—one fixed in space and one fixed in the rigid-body—to describe its motion. The reasoning employed to illustrate the inappropriateness of using a single reference frame entails showing that the equations of motion, thus obtained, are far more complex than the equations resulting from application of the traditional Euler Method. This point is illustrated through the well-known frictionless symmetrical spinning top problem.