Rigid Body Dynamics

January 2024

1 Introduction
A rigid body is one whose constituent particles retain their relative positions
even when subjected to an external (deforming) force.

Consider a rigid body rotating about an axis. Let δθ be the angular dis-
placement traced by the radius vector to some point P on the body in time δt.
[Note that θ displacement is same for all the points on the body.]

δθ
ω= = constant (1)
δt

∴ the angular velocity remains constant for all points in a rigid body.

2 Torque
The torque τ is the turning effect of the force about the axis of rotation.

Consider a particle P in the X-Y plane. Let ⃗r be its radius vector w.r.t
to origin O. Suppose a force F⃗ acts on the particle. Then moment of force or
torque is defined as:

⃗τ = ⃗r × F⃗ (2)

Further, let θ be the angle between the force and radius vectors. The radial
component of the force is Fr = F cosθ and the angular component is Fθ = F sinθ.
Then the magnitude of the torque is simply

1
 τ = rF sinθ = Fθ r (3)

This concludes the fact that torque is only due to the angular component of
the force.

3 Angular Momentum
The angular momentum of a particle rotating about an axis is defined as the
moment of linear momentum of that particle about that axis.

Again, consider a particle rotating P in the X-Y plane and ⃗r be its radius
vector. Then the angular momentum is defined as:

⃗ = ⃗r × p⃗
L (4)

[It can be proved using the aforementioned method that the angular momen-
tum is only concerned with the angular component of the linear momentum.]

Differentiating equation (4) w.r.t time t, we get:

⃗
dL d⃗r d⃗
p
= × p⃗ + ⃗r × = ⃗v × p⃗ + ⃗r × F⃗ (5)
dt dt dt

⃗
dL
∴ ⃗τ = (6)
dt

[It’s useful to analogue this and other rotational quantities to linear quantities
such as force, displacement, etc.]

3.1 Conservation of Angular Momentum

From equation (6), if the (external) torque is zero:

Linitial = Lf inal (7)

∴ the angular momentum is conserved when the external torque is zero.

2
4 Moment of Inertia
The M.O.I is defined as the rotational mass of the body. It is a measure of
the tendency of a rotating object to continue its state of motion. It is a rank-2
tensor (matrix):

 
Ixx Ixy Ixz
I = Iyx Iyy Iyz  (8)
Izx Izy Izz
is expressed as r2 dm.
R
where any general Iij

I’ll use a simplified case of equation (8) and let the body rotate about x/y/z
axes. Then the formula becomes I = mr2 where m is the mass at the center of
mass of the body and r is the distance from the axis of rotation.

4.1 Relation between M.O.I and Angular Momentum

4.2 Relation between M.O.I and Torque
4.3 M.O.I of continuous bodies and rotated axes