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1.Important Definitions

There are a few basic physical concepts that are fundamental to a proper understanding of rotational motion. With a steady grasp of these concepts, you should encounter no major difficulties in making the transition between the mechanics of translational motion and of rotational motion.Rigid BodiesThe questions on rotational motion on SAT II Physics deal only with

rigid bodies

. A rigid body is an object that retains its overall shape, meaning that the particles that make up therigid body stay in the same position relative to one another. A pool ball is one example of arigid body since the shape of the ball is constant as it rolls and spins. A wheel, a record, and atop are other examples of rigid bodies that commonly appear in questions involving rotationalmotion. By contrast, a slinky is not a rigid body, because its coils expand, contract, and bend,so that its motion would be considerably more difficult to predict if you were to spin it about.Center of MassThe

center of mass

of an object, in case you have forgotten, is the point about which all thematter in the object is evenly distributed. A net force acting on the object will accelerate it in just the same way as if all the mass of the object were concentrated in its center of mass. Welooked at the concept of center of mass in the previous chapter’s discussion of linear momentum. The concept of center of mass will play an even more central role in this chapter,as rotational motion is essentially defined as the rotation of a body about its center of mass.Axis of RotationThe rotational motion of a rigid body occurs when every point in the body moves in a circular path around a line called the

axis of rotation

, which cuts through the center of mass. Onefamiliar example of rotational motion is that of a spinning wheel. In the figure at right, we seea wheel rotating counterclockwise around an axis labeled

that is perpendicular to the page.As the wheel rotates, every point in the rigid body makes a circle around the axis of rotation,

.RadiansWe’re all very used to measuring angles in degrees, and know perfectly well that there are360º in a circle, 90º in a right angle, and so on. You’ve probably noticed that 360 is also aconvenient number because so many other numbers divide into it. However, this is a totallyarbitrary system that has its origins in the Ancient Egyptian calendar which was based on a360-day year.It makes far more mathematical sense to measure angles in

radians

(rad). If we were tomeasure the arc of a circle that has the same length as the radius of that circle, then one radianwould be the angle made by two radii drawn to either end of the arc.

Converting between Degrees and RadiansIt is unlikely that SAT II Physics will specifically ask you to convert between degrees andradians, but it will save you time and headaches if you can make this conversion quickly andeasily. Just remember this formula:You’ll quickly get used to working in radians, but below is a conversion table for the morecommonly occurring angles.

Value in degreesValue in radians

30π/645π/460π/390π/2180π3602πCalculating the Length of an ArcThe advantage of using radians instead of degrees, as will quickly become apparent, is thatthe radian is based on the nature of angles and circles themselves, rather than on the arbitraryfact of how long it takes our Earth to circle the sun.For example, calculating the length of any arc in a circle is much easier with radians thanwith degrees. We know that the circumference of a circle is given by

P =

πr

, and we knowthat there are 2π radians in a circle. If we wanted to know the length,

, of the arc described by any angle , we would know that this arc is a fraction of the perimeter, (/2π)

. Because

P = 2πr

, the length of the arc would be:

Rotational Kinematics

You are now going to fall in love with the word angular. You’ll find that for every term inkinematics that you’re familiar with, there’s an “angular” counterpart:

angulardisplacement

angular velocity

angular acceleration

, etc. And you’ll find that, “angular”aside, very little changes when dealing with rotational kinematics.Angular Position, Displacement, Velocity, and AccelerationSAT II Physics is unlikely to have any questions that simply ask you to calculate the angular position, displacement, velocity, or acceleration of a rotating body. However, these conceptsform the basis of rotational mechanics, and the questions you

will

encounter on SAT IIPhysics will certainly be easier if you’re familiar with these fundamentals.

Angular PositionBy convention, we measure angles in a circle in a counterclockwise direction from the positive

-axis. The

angular position

of a particle is the angle, , made between the lineconnecting that particle to the origin,

, and the positive

-axis, measured counterclockwise.Let’s take the example of a point

on a rotating wheel:In this figure, point

has an angular position of . Note that every point on the line hasthe same angular position: the angular position of a point does not depend on how far that point is from the origin,

.We can relate the angular position of

to the length of the arc of the circle between

and the

-axis by means of an easy equation:In this equation,

is the length of the arc, and

is the radius of the circle.Angular Displacement Now imagine that the wheel is rotated so that every point on line moves from an initialangular position of to a final angular position of . The

angular displacement

, , of lineis:For example, if you rotate a wheel counterclockwise such that the angular position of linechanges from = 45º = π/4 to = 135º = 3π/4, as illustrated below, then the angular displacement of line is 90º or π/2 radians.For line to move in the way described above, every point along the line must rotate 90ºcounterclockwise. By definition, the particles that make up a rigid body must stay in the samerelative position to one another. As a result, the angular displacement is the same for every point in a rotating rigid body.Also note that the angular distance a point has rotated may or may not equal that point’sangular displacement. For example, if you rotate a record 45º clockwise and then 20ºcounterclockwise, the angular displacement of the record is 25º, although the particles havetraveled a total angular distance of 65º. Hopefully, you’ve already had it hammered into your