Hmm, that can't be true; it's of uniform density, and the thing it's rotating about has to be its center of mass.
What's odd about it (to me) is the optimal solution isn't symmetric (cylindrically symmetric). It's an intuition trap that you'd expect symmetric solutions. If the Wikipedia history is to be believed, Lagrange fell for this wrong assumption, and there was a 45-year gap before anyone noticed the subtle wrongness of it.
alt Hacker News
Hmm, that can't be true; it's of uniform density, and the thing it's rotating about has to be its center of mass.
What's odd about it (to me) is the optimal solution isn't symmetric (cylindrically symmetric). It's an intuition trap that you'd expect symmetric solutions. If the Wikipedia history is to be believed, Lagrange fell for this wrong assumption, and there was a 45-year gap before anyone noticed the subtle wrongness of it.