Moment of Inertia

Chris Dackow and Bridget Rauch

Period 1

May 18, 2011

Every object has a certain resistance to change in rotation, just as they have a resistance to
change in linear motion. This resistance is known as I, the moment of inertia of the object. Mo-
ment of inertia is measured in kilogram meters squared (kgm2 ).

Calculating moment of inertia will always involve two quantities: M and R, where M is the
mass of the object being rotated and R is its radius about the axis of rotation.

The general form for moment of inertia is

Z
I= r2 dm = Σmr2

More specific forms can be seen in Figure 1 below:1

Figure 1: Note: A point charge rotated would have the same moment of inertia as a hoop

1
Source: http://www.phys.ttu.edu/ batcam/Courses/semester%201/Labs/UNIT%2016%20ROTATIONAL%20DYNAMICS.htm

1
Dackow/Rauch May 18, 2011

The Parallel Axis Theorem

While these formulas are certainly applicable to many situations, many situations will arise in which
the rotation point of a system is not in the exact center or edge of the object. For these situations,
we must use the Parallel Axis Theorem, as follows:

Inew = ICM + M R2

In this case, M is again the mass of the rotated object and R is the distance from the center of
mass, CM .

Kinetic Energy
As with translational or linear motion, rotating objects have kinetic energy. This is given by the
formula:
1
Ek = Iω 2
2

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