Chapter - 7 Systems Of Particles And Rotational
Motion
RIGID BODY
● A rigid body is a body with a perfectly definite and unchanging shape.
● The distances between different pairs of such a body do not change
MOTIONS OF A RIGID BODY PURE TRANSLATION
• In pure translational motion at any instant of time every particle of the body
has the same velocity.
TRANSLATION AND ROTATION
● Points P1, P2, P3 and P4 have different velocities at any instant of
time.
● The line along which the body is fixed is termed as its axis of rotation.
ROTATION ABOUT A FIXED AXIS
● In rotation of a rigid body about a fixed axis, every particle of the
body moves in a circle, which lies in a plane perpendicular to the axis
and has its centre on the axis.
ROTATION ABOUT AN AXIS NOT FIXED
● The axis of a spinning top moves around the vertical through its point
of contact with the ground, sweeping out a cone.
● The movement of the axis of rotation is termed precession.
• The motion of a rigid body which is not pivoted or fixed in some way is
either a pure translation or a combination of translation and rotation.
• The motion of a rigid body which is pivoted or fixed in some way is
rotation.
CENTRE OF MASS
● Centre of mass is the point at which the entire mass of the body
can be assumed to be concentrated.
● For the particles of equal mass m
● Thus, for three particles of equal mass, the centre of mass coincides
with the centroid of the triangle formed by the particles.
● In terms of position vectors, the centre of mass is given by
● The centre of mass of homogeneous bodies of regular shapes
like rings, discs, spheres, rods lie at their geometric centers.
PROBLEM
• Find the centre of mass of three particles at the vertices of an equilateral
triangle. The masses of the particles are 100g, 150g, and 200g respectively.
Each side of the equilateral triangle is 0.5m long.
Solution
• We have
MOTION OF CENTRE OF MASS
● Thus the total mass of a system of particles times the
acceleration of its centre of mass is the vector sum of all the
forces acting on the system of particles.
● Only the external forces contribute to the equation
● The centre of mass of a system of particles moves as if all the
mass of the system was concentrated at the centre of mass and
all the external forces were applied at that point.
Illustration- projectile explodes into fragments
● Consider a projectile, following the usual parabolic trajectory,
explodes into fragments midway in air.
● The forces leading to the explosion are internal forces. They
contribute nothing to the motion of the centre of mass.
● The total external force, namely, the force of gravity acting on the
body, is the same before and after the explosion.
● The centre of mass under the influence of the external force
continues, therefore, along the same parabolic trajectory as it would
have followed if there were no explosion.
LINEAR MOMENTUM OF A SYSTEM OF PARTICLES
● The total momentum of a system of particles is equal to the product
of the total mass of the system and the velocity of its centre of mass
● Differentiating above equation with respect to time,
● This is the statement of Newton’s second law extended to a system
of particles.
● When the total external force acting on a system of particles is zero,
the total linear momentum of the system is constant.
• When the total external force on the system is zero the velocity of the
centre of mass remains constant.
VECTOR PRODUCT OF TWO VECTORS
● The vector product or cross product of two vectors is given by
● The vector product of two vectors is another vector perpendicular to
the given vectors.
Properties of vector product
RULES TO FIND DIRECTION OF VECTOR PRODUCT
i) Right hand screw rule
● If a right-handed screw is rotated from vector A to vector B, through a
small angle, the direction of the advancing screw gives the direction
of the cross product of vectors A and B.
ii) Right hand thumb rule
● If the fingers of the right hand are curled in such a way that they point
along the direction of rotation from vector A to vector B through a
small angle, then the thumb points in the direction of the cross
product of vector A and B.