Useful Moment of Inertia Formulas

Note: In the table below, the overbar indicates the moment of inertia is taken about an axis that
passes through the centroid, denoted as C. Parallel axis theorems are:

2
Ad I I
x x
+ =
2
Ad I I
y y
+ =

y x A I I
xy xy
+ =
ere, A is the area of the shape, d is the distance from the centroidal axis to the desired parallel
axis, and
y x
are the x and y distances of the centroid from the origin of the desired coordinate
frame.
Rectangle:
!
"2
"
bh I
x
=

!
!
"
bh I
x
=
h b I
y
!
"2
"
=

h b I
y
!
!
"
=
# =
y x
I
Area = bh
Triangle:
!
!$
"
bh I
x
=

!
"2
"
bh I
x
=
%2
& 2 '
2
h s b b
I
xy

=
bh Area
2
"
=
Circle:
(
(
"
r I I
y x
= =
# =
y x
I
2
r Area =
Semi-circle:
(
)
"
r I I
y x
= =

(
*
+
)
)
r I
x

# =
y x
I

2
2
r
Area

=
Ellipse:
!
(
"
ab I
x
=

b a I
y
!
(
"
=
# =
y x
I
ab Area =
,
x
,-
x-
b
h
.
b/2
h/2
b
h
x
x-
.
h/!
s
.
r
,
x
.
r
,
x
(r/!0
x-
.
r
,
x
a
b