Perlen-Colloquium: Prof. Jean-Pierre Eckmann (University of Geneva)

Tumbling Downhill along a Given Curve

A cylinder will roll down an inclined plane in a straight line. A cone will
wiggle along a circle on that plane and then will stop rolling.
We ask the inverse question: For which curves drawn on the inclined plane
$\real^2$ can one chisel a shape that will roll downhill following precisely
this prescribed curve and its translationally repeated copies?

This is a nice, and easy to understand problem, but the solution is quite
interesting.

(Based on work mostly with Y. Sobolev and T. Tlusty. After a Nature paper,
Solid-body trajectoids shaped to roll along desired pathways, August 2023.)

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