Rotational Motion

Lecture Outline
• Angular Quantities
• Torque
• Rotational Dynamics
• Rotational Kinetic Energy
• Rolling Object
• Angular Momentum
Angular Quantities

Rigid object – shape doesn’t change

In purely rotational motion – an object
move in rotation motion with (“O”) as the
axis of rotational
Point P - distance R from the center
- move in a circle (same as all other
point in the object)
All points on a straight line drawn
through the axis move through the
same angle in the same time.
X-axis as a reference frame - can
indicate the angular position of
point P - θ usually in degree -
radian is use for mathematical
purposes
The angle θ in radians is defined:
[dimensionless]
l
,
l - is the arc length. R - distance
from the axis Rof rotational
 Example 10-1: Birds of
prey—in radians.
A particular bird’s eye can
just distinguish objects
that subtend an angle no
smaller than about 3 x
10-4 rad.
• How many degrees is this?
• How small an object can
the bird just distinguish
when flying at a height of
100 m?
To define linear motion of an object we use
quantities such as displacement, velocity and
acceleration of the object
For rotational motion, we will make use angular
quantities such as angular displacement, angular
velocity and angular acceleration
The concept is similar to linear motion
A wheel rotating – some point initially
specified by θ1 move to point θ2

Angular displacement:
[rad]
The average angular velocity (omega, ω)
is defined as the total angular
displacement divided by time:

[rad/s]
The instantaneous angular velocity:

[rad/s]
It is not only the point (we measure) move in that
angular velocity, all point in the object rotate with
the same angular velocity – every position in the
object move through the same angle in the same
time interval
By convention – object moving counterclockwise
has + value – object moving
clockwise has - value
The angular acceleration (alpha, α) is the rate at
which the angular velocity changes with time:

[rad/s2]
The instantaneous acceleration:

[rad/s2]

All points in the object have the same angular

acceleration
Every point on a rotating body has, at any instant a
linear velocity v and a linear acceleration.
We can relate the linear quantities (v and a) to the
angular quantities (ω and α)
Linear velocity and angular velocity are related:
Conceptual Example 10-2: Is the lion faster than
the horse?
On a rotating carousel or merry-go-round, one
child sits on a horse near the outer edge and
another child sits on a lion halfway out from the
center.
(a) Which child has the greater linear velocity?
(b) Which child has the greater angular velocity?
Points farther from
the axis of rotation
will move faster
(linear velocity) but
the angular velocity
for all points is the
same.
 If the angular velocity of a
rotating object changes, it
has a tangential acceleration:

Even if the angular velocity is constant, each

point on the object has a centripetal
acceleration:
Total acceleration of the object:
  
a  a tan  a R
a  2
a tan  aR2
Here is the correspondence between linear and
rotational quantities:
 Example 10-3: Angular and linear velocities
and accelerations.

A carousel is initially at rest. At t = 0 it is

given a constant angular acceleration α =
0.060 rad/s2, which increases its angular
velocity for 8.0 s. At t = 8.0 s, determine
the magnitude of the following quantities:
• the angular velocity of the carousel;
• the linear velocity of a child located 2.5 m
from the center;
(c) the tangential (linear) acceleration of that
child;
(d) the centripetal acceleration of the child;
and
(e) the total linear acceleration of the child.
The frequency is the number of complete
revolutions per second:

Frequencies are measured in hertz:

The period is the time one revolution takes:

Example 10-4: Hard drive.
The platter of the hard drive of a computer rotates
at 7200 rpm (rpm = revolutions per minute =
rev/min).
• What is the angular velocity (rad/s) of the
platter?
• If the reading head of the drive is located 3.00
cm from the rotation axis, what is the linear
speed of the point on the platter just below it?
• If a single bit requires 0.50 μm of length along
the direction of motion, how many bits per
second can the writing head write when it is
3.00 cm from the axis?
Example 10-5: Given ω as function of time.
A disk of radius R = 3.0 m rotates at an angular
velocity ω = (1.6 + 1.2t) rad/s, where t is in
seconds. At the instant t = 2.0 s, determine
• the angular acceleration, and
• the speed v and the components of the
acceleration a of a point on the edge of the disk.
Vector Nature of Angular Quantities
The angular velocity vector points along the axis of
rotation, with the direction by convention is given by
the right-hand rule. If the direction of the rotation axis
does not change, the angular acceleration vector
points along it as well.
Constant Angular Acceleration
The equations of motion for constant angular
acceleration are the same as those for linear motion,
with the substitution of the angular quantities for the
linear ones.
Example 10-6: Centrifuge acceleration.
A centrifuge rotor is accelerated from rest to 20,
000 rpm in 30 s.
• What is its average angular acceleration?
• Through how many revolutions has the centrifuge
rotor turned during its acceleration period,
assuming constant angular acceleration?
The calculation for
moment of inertia for
most ordinary object can
be difficult.
Moment of regularly shape
object can be work out
using calculus (10-7)
The rotational inertia of an
object depends not only
on its mass distribution
but also the location of the
axis of rotation—compare
(f) and (g), for example.
 Conservation of Angular
Momentum
In the absence of an external torque, angular
momentum is conserved:
dL
 0 an d L  I  con stan t.
dt

This is the law of conservation of angular

momentum,
the total angular momentum of a rotating
object remains constant if the net external
torque acting on it is zero.
This means, the value of angular momentum
is conserved:

Where Io – moment of inertia at (t=0)

ωo – angular velocity at (t=0)

Therefore, if an object’s moment of inertia

changes, its angular speed changes as well.
Object change their shape – alter their moment
of inertia (I), angular velocity (ω) change as well
so Iω remain constant
Skater start spinning at low
angular velocity with arm
outstretched
Bring her arm close to her
body, decreasing her
moment of inertia
For Iω to remain constant,
ω increases
She will spin more faster
Diver leaves the board with
an angular momentum, L =
Iω, with small angular
velocity.
Curls herself, rotates more
quickly
Stretch out again, moment
of inertia increase, angular
velocity decrease
Enter the water with small
angular velocity, ω
Example 11-1: Object rotating on a string of changing
length.
A small mass m attached to the end of a string revolves in
a circle on a frictionless tabletop. The other end of the
string passes through a hole in the table. Initially, the mass
revolves with a speed v1 = 2.4 m/s in a circle of radius R1 =
0.80 m. The string is then pulled slowly through the hole
so that the radius is reduced to R2 = 0.48 m. What is the
speed, v2, of the mass now?
Example 11-2: Clutch.
A simple clutch consists of two cylindrical plates
that can be pressed together to connect two
sections of an axle, as needed, in a piece of
machinery. The two plates have masses MA = 6.0
kg and MB = 9.0 kg, with equal radii R0 = 0.60 m.
They are initially separated. Plate MA is accelerated
from rest to an angular velocity ω1 = 7.2 rad/s in
time Δt = 2.0 s. Calculate
(a) the angular momentum of MA.

(b) the torque required to have accelerated MA from

rest to ω1.

(c) Next, plate MB, initially at rest but free to rotate

without friction, is placed in firm contact with freely
rotating plate MA, and the two plates both rotate at
a constant angular velocity ω2, which is
considerably less than ω . Why does this happen,
Example 11-3: Neutron star.
Astronomers detect stars that are rotating extremely
rapidly, known as neutron stars. A neutron star is believed
to form from the inner core of a larger star that collapsed,
under its own gravitation, to a star of very small radius and
very high density. Before collapse, suppose the core of
such a star is the size of our Sun (r ≈ 7 x 105 km) with mass
2.0 times as great as the Sun, and is rotating at a frequency
of 1.0 revolution every 100 days. If it were to undergo
gravitational collapse to a neutron star of radius 10 km,
what would its rotation frequency be? Assume the star is a
uniform sphere at all times, and loses no mass.
(I = 2/5 MR2)
Direction Nature of Angular
Momentum
Angular momentum is a vector; the
direction is in the same direction as
the angular velocity vector.
The person start to walk
counterclockwise, the angular
momentum point upward
The platform start to move clockwise,
direction of angular momentum is
downward
This happen to balance out the upward
angular momentum so the total
angular momentum remain L = 0
Example 11-4: Running on a circular
platform.
Suppose a 60-kg person stands at
the edge of a 6.0-m-diameter
circular platform, which is mounted
on frictionless bearings and has a
moment of inertia of 1800 kg·m2.
The platform is at rest initially, but
when the person begins running at a
speed of 4.2 m/s (with respect to the
Earth) around its edge, the platform
begins to rotate in the opposite
direction. Calculate the angular
velocity of the platform.
Conceptual Example 11-5:
Spinning bicycle wheel.
Your physics teacher is holding a
spinning bicycle wheel while he
stands on a stationary frictionless
turntable. What will happen if the
teacher suddenly flips the bicycle
wheel over so that it is spinning in
the opposite direction?