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:

I x  I x  Ad 2 I y  I y  Ad 2 I xy  I xy  Ax y
Here, A is the area of the shape, d is the distance from the centroidal axis to the desired parallel
axis, and x y are the x and y distances of the centroid from the origin of the desired coordinate
frame.

Rectangle: y y`

I x  1 bh 3 I x  1 bh 3
b/2
12 3
I y  1 b 3 h I y  1 b3h h C x`
12 3
h/2
I xy  0 Area = bh
x
b
Triangle:
s
I x  1 bh 3 I x  1 bh 3
36 12
h
b(b  2s)h 2 1 C x`
I xy  Area  bh h/3
72 2 x
b

Circle:
y
I x  I y  1 r 4
4
r
I xy  0 C x

Area  r 2

Semi-circle: y
I x  I y  1 r 4 I x'     8 r 4 4r/3π
8  8 9  r C x`
r 2 x
I xy  0 Area 
2
Ellipse: y
I x  1 ab 3 I y  1 a 3b
4 4 r C x
I xy  0
b
Area  ab
a