Abstract

Modern classical mechanics has failed to explain the preferred direction of spin and the reversal torque in the rattleback. This is because three of the hydrodynamical aethereal forces are denied, and the relevant torque is probably to be found amongst these three forces.

The three denied aethereal forces are the centrifugal force (G2), the Coriolis force vxH (G3), and the angular ??A/??t force (G4). The vxH force and the ??A/??t force occur in tandem on the fine-grain level in electromagnetic induction. On the large scale, G3 accounts for the force that prevents a pivoted gyroscope from toppling over. On the fine-grain level G2 accounts for magnetic repulsion, and on the large scale it accounts for why the Moon doesn't fall to the Earth.

Equation (5) in Maxwell?'s 1861 paper 'On Physical Lines of Force' will be examined in order to try and ascertain which of the G forces might be responsible for the torque that brings a spinning rigid body into line with its preferred axis of symmetry and also with its preferred direction of spin if it has one.