Rectangular prisms exhibit unstable rotation about their intermediate principal axis
Rectangular prisms and general asymmetric rigid bodies undergo unstable rotation when spun around their intermediate principal axis, a phenomenon famously known as the intermediate axis theorem or the Dzhanibekov effect.
The retrieved literature consistently supports the classical intermediate axis theorem, demonstrating that rigid bodies and asymmetric objects exhibit rotational instability when spinning about their intermediate principal axis.
Remco I. Leine, Giuseppe Capobianco, Perry Bartelt, Marc Christen, Andrin Caviezel. Stability of rigid body motion through an extended intermediate axis theorem: application to rockfall simulation. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11044-021-09792-y
Paper [0] notes that rotation around the major and minor principal axes is stable whereas rotation around the intermediate axis is unstable according to the intermediate axis theorem.
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Amer TS, El-Kafly HF, Elneklawy AH, Galal AA. Analyzing the spatial motion of a rigid body subjected to constant body-fixed torques and gyrostatic moment.. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-55964-z
Paper [2] explores the rotatory spatial motion of asymmetric rigid bodies and analyzes the stability and equilibrium points associated with torques applied along the middle axis.
Bianchetti R. The Dzhanibekov Effect Revisited: Informational Hysteresis, Anisotropic Latency Fields, and Regime Transitions in Torque-Free Rotation. 2026. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202603.0378.v1
Paper [8] discusses the Dzhanibekov effect and tennis racket theorem, affirming that rigid bodies spinning about their intermediate principal axis undergo unstable motion and abrupt flips.
Elneklawy AH, Amer TS, Elkilany SA, Seliem ASA, Hegazy N. Optimization of asymmetric gyrostatic satellite kinematics in a resistive medium: A novel elliptic function solution.. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-45403-6
Paper [10] investigates asymmetric rigid body dynamics and attitude stability under Euler's equations, adhering to classical rotational stability properties.
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