Resumen de Exploring Rotations Due to Radiation Pressure: 2D to 3D Transition Is Interesting!
Radiation pressure is an important topic within a standard physics course see, in particular, Refs. 1 and 2. The physics of radiation pressure is described, the magnitude of it is derived, both for the case of a perfectly absorbing surface and of a perfect reflector,1and various applications of this interesting effect are discussed, such as space sailing1,2or optical �tweezers.�2There are, however, relatively few problems that are available as endofthechapter exercises. Below I present a problem I composed that I assign to my students in class and that facilitates a lively class discussion. This problem is somewhat reminiscent of the setting used by P. N. Lebedev in his historic experiments on proving the existence of radiation pressure.
