  The evergreen problem of a bead on a rotating hoop shows a multitude of
bifurcations when the bead moves with friction. This motion is studied for
different values of the damping coefficient and rotational speeds of the hoop.
Phase portraits and trajectories corresponding to all different modes of motion
of the bead are presented. They illustrate the rich dynamics associated with
this simple system. For some range of values of the damping coefficient and
rotational speeds of the hoop, linear stability analysis of the equilibrium
points is inadequate to classify their nature. A technique involving
transformation of coordinates and order of magnitude arguments is presented to
examine such cases. This may provide a general framework to investigate other
complex systems.
