Consider a rod kept vertically on the ground. I keeps the rod in a slanting position making some angle with the horizontal. Can I now move this rod along the horizontal plane by applying a force at its bottom? The torque due to my force at the bottom will act against that due to gravity keeping the rod at equilibrium in that slanting position and I could move it.
I tried it experimentally using one of my books instead of rod and it kind of worked.
But, when I thought about the situation in different ways I get opposite answers. Consider the rod at rest at that slanting position. If I leave it it will fall by rotating about the point of contact. When I'm moving the rod I'm applying force on the bottom point. As my force passes through the axis of rotation torque due to it would be zero and I cannot move it the way I want.
Another way of my thinking-my force at the bottom of the rod would actually provide a torque along the center of mass of the rod which will act against the torque due to gravity and in this way my experiment would work the way I thought.
Why am I getting different results if I think in different ways? Please help.
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