Jhon Jasper D.

Apan
Department of Physics
PHYS101L/A22 – E103
jhonjasperapan@gmail.com

ANALYSIS

In a rotating body, a quantity called moment of inertia resists any change in rotational motion. For a
rigid body like the disk used in this experiment, the moment of inertia can be computed by taking integral of
the masses relative to the axis rotation.
For an object, such as a pulley, to rotate about an axis, a force called torque is needed. It is equivalent
to the force described in translation motion. However, torque accelerates in a rotational manner called angular
acceleration. Moreover, like translational motion, an existing quantity, the moment of inertia, resists rotation.
Therefore, an object with a high moment of inertia needs more torque for it to rotate or to maintain a rotational
motion. This is an application of Newton’s second law of motion for a rotating body where an object’s torque
can be computed by multiplying the moment of inertia to the angular acceleration.
Torque can also be computed by multiplying the force applied to an object to the distance of the point
where the force is applied from the axis of rotation.
In this experiment, these two definitions of torque were used to compute for an object’s moment of
inertia. By applying a force, a disk was made to rotate, and its angular acceleration was recorded and used,
together with other measured and computed values, to compute for the moment of inertia.

CONCLUSION

The moment of inertia of a solid disk rotated about its axis and about its diameter were determined.
Prior to the experiment, the theoretical values were computed. The moment of inertia when the disk was
rotated about its axis was lower compared to when it was rotated around its diameter.
On the experiment, the mass of the disk, its radius, and the radius of the shaft were constant.
Furthermore, since the weight of the load were similar, then the force acting on the object were equal. The
acceleration was observed to be lower and the moment of inertia was computed to be greater when the disk
was rotated about its axis.
Basing on the results of this experiment, there was a minimal difference between the theoretical and
experimental values of the moment of inertia. This proves that the moment of inertia is indeed responsible in
resisting motion, and it is inversely proportional to the angular acceleration of the object. This also proves that
rotational motion conforms with Newton’s second law of motion.
 Jhon Jasper D. Apan
Department of Physics
PHYS101L/A22 – E104
jhonjasperapan@gmail.com

ANALYSIS

Torque is the force required for an object to rotate on an axis. It is directly proportional to the force
applied to an object, as well as the perpendicular distance r of the applied force to the axis of rotation. Its
magnitude can be obtained by multiplying r with the net force applied. For its direction, the right-hand rule is
used. If the rotation is counterclockwise, the torque is positive, and negative otherwise.
In linear motion, it is said that a system is in equilibrium if it is not moving which is only possible if
the net force is equal to zero. This is the first condition of static equilibrium. However, in a rotating body, a
second condition is introduced. The second condition states that for a system to be in equilibrium, then, it must
not be rotating, meaning its net torque is zero.
In this experiment, the relationship between an applied force, its distance to the axis of rotation, as
well as the center of gravity to the second condition of equilibrium was observed. The experiment followed a
setup that is similar to a seesaw system where two weights are applied to sides of the beam rotating on a single
fulcrum.

CONCLUSION

Since the direction of the torque on one side of the beam is different from the other, then equilibrium
could be achieved because the net torque can cancel out to zero. From the results of this experiment, the beam
did achieve an equilibrium state.
This experiment proves that torque is indeed dependent on both the net force acting on it and the
distance of this applied force to the axis of rotation. The results of the experiment have established the
relationship between these two parameters, showing that when the weight acting on one side of the beam is
greater, the other side compensates it by having a greater distance from the axis of rotation to achieve
equilibrium. When the axis of rotation is shifted such that it is not in the center of gravity, the system followed
the same trend of weight-distance correlation where the weight of the pan and its distance to the axis of
rotation countered the rotation of the beam to the direction of its center of gravity where the mass is assumed
to be concentrated.
The minimal difference between the computed and actual values of the pans and the beam confirms
that the results are accurate.