Rotational and Linear ExampleA mass m is placed on a rod of length r and negligible mass, and constrained to rotate about a fixed axis. If the mass is released from a horizontal orientation, it can be described either in terms of force and accleration with Newton's second law for linear motion, or as a pure rotation about the axis with Newton's second law for rotation. This provides a setting for comparing linear and rotational quantities for the same system. This process leads to the expression for the moment of inertia of a point mass. |
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Moment of Inertia: RodFor a uniform rod with negligible thickness, the moment of inertia about its center of mass is |
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Moment of Inertia: RodCalculating the moment of inertia of a rod about its center of mass is a good example of the need for calculus to deal with the properties of continuous mass distributions. The moment of inertia of a point mass is given by I = mr^2 , but the rod would have to be considered to be an infinite number of point masses, and each must be multiplied by the square of its distance from the axis. The resulting infinite sum is called an integral. The general form for the moment of inertia is: When the mass element dm is expressed in terms of a length element dr along the rod and the sum taken over the entire length, the integral takes the form: |
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Rod Moment Calculation
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Rod Moment About End
In this case that becomes This can be confirmed by direct integration |
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