On establishing equations of motion of mechanical vibration systems placed on moving bases

The first author has been teaching the postgraduate course, “The Dynamics of Mechanical Systems” in The ITU Faculty of Mechanical Engineering for nearly 20 years. He has observed that students frequently have problems in obtaining the equations of motion of the vibrating systems which were placed on moving bases. Starting from this observation, he has found that the homework stated below, which was given to the students occasionally, was very helpful in learning the subject. The main idea of the homework is the derivation of the equations of motion, with the help of formulating the Lagrange’s equations with respect to a moving set of axis for a vibration system with two degrees of freedom which consists of a horizontal table rotating with a constant angular velocity around a vertical axis. The students were also asked to solve the same problem with a different method of their choice and to determine the reaction forces as well. We want to share this problem with the reader, which we have assessed as very instructive and appropriate from the viewpoint of applicability of different methods.