7.

System of Particles
&
Rotational Motion
7. System of Particles and Rotational Motion
 Centre of mass of a two-particle system
 Momentum conservation and centre of
mass motion
 Centre of motion of a rigid body
 Centre of mass of a uniform rod
 Rigid body rotation and equations of
rotational motion
 Moment of force or Torque
 Terms related to System of particles and rotational
motion
• A rigid body is a body with a perfectly define and
unchanging shape. The distances between all pairs of
particles of such a body do not change.
• The centre of mass of a body is defined as a point where
the whole mass of the body is supposed to be concentrated
for describing its translatory motion.
• The centre of gravity is a point at which the resultant of the
gravitational forces on all the particles of the body acts.
• In a uniform gravitational field such as that of the earth on
a small body, the centre of gravity coincides with the
centre of mass.
• In pure translational motion at any instant of time all
particles of the body have same velocity.
• In rotation of a rigid body about a fixed axis, every particle
of the body moves in a circle, which lies in a plane
perpendicular to the axis and has its centre on the axis.
 CENTRE OF MASS OF TWO PARTICLE SYSTEM

The centre of mass is an imaginary point

where one can assume the entire mass of
the given system or object to be positioned.

Consider a system consisting of two point masses m1 and m2, whose position
vectors at a time t with reference to the origin O of the inertial frame are
 Centre of mass of two-particle system
By building a Cartesian y
coordinate, position of point c
is found at : m1
 
 m1r1  m2 r2 C
rcm  (1)

r1 
m1  m2 rcm

r2 m2
or written as:
x
O


m1 x1  m2 x 2
xcm 
m1  m2
m1 y1  m2 y 2
y cm 
m1  m2
 From Eq. (1), the velocity and acceleration of the
CM are:
  
 d rcm m1 v1  m2 v 2
v cm  
dt m1  m2
  
 d vcm m1 a1  m2 a 2
a cm  
dt m1  m2

Can we also find acm is zero from the above
Eq. ?      
m1 a1  m2 a2  F1r  F2 r F2 r   F1r

ac  0
Centre of mass of many-particle
system
Consider a system consisting of N
particles of masses m1 m2 …… mN . The total
mass is M m  n

Each particle can be represented by its 

 
location rn, velocity v n and its an
acceleration .

The CM of the system can be defined by

logical extension of Eq(1):
   
 m1 r1  m2 r2        mN rN 1 
rcm 
m1  m2        mN

M
 mn rn

For the system of N particles treated as a single particle of

mass M located at the center of mass( rcm ), experiencing acm
 1 
rcm 
M
 mn rn
 1 
a cm 
M
m n an
 We can summarize this important result
as follow:
“The overall translational motion of a
system of particles can be analyzed using
Newton’s law as if the mass were
concentrated at the center of mass and
the total external force were applied at
that point.”
These are general results that apply
equally well to a solid object.
 Center of mass of rigid bodies
1) If an object has symmetry, the CM must lie at
the geometrical symmetrical center of the object.
Suppose the mass is uniformly distributed.

cm
cm  

2) If the object has no symmetry, sometimes it is

also easy to find its cm position:

cm 
(a) (b)
3) If we encounter solid irregular objects, we
can divide infinite small elements. And the
sums of Eqs(7-12) transform into integrals:
x
z
O
y
1 1
xcm  lim  x n mn   xdm
M m  0 M
1 1
y cm  lim  y n mn   ydm
M m0 M (7-18)
1 1
z cm  lim  z n mn   zdm
M m0 M
In vector form are
 1 
rcm 
M  r dm (7-19)
 Conservation of momentum in a
system of particles
1) For a system containing
 N particles,
the total momentum P is ( M   mi )
 N  N  N
mn vn  (7-21)

P  P  m v M
n  n nMv M
cm
n 1 n 1 n 1
Here  
dP dvcm  
M  Macm   Fext (7-22)
dt dt
If the net external force
 acting on a
system is zero, then dP  0 and so the
dt 
total linear momentum P of the system
remains constant.
2) If we view the system from the cm frame,
the velocity vn ' of a particle in this frame is
  
vn '  (vn  vcm ) (7-24)

Then in this cm frame, the total momentum is

 N  N
 N

P'   mn vn '   mn vn   mn vcm (7-25)
n 1 n 1 n 1
 
 Mvcm  Mvcm  0
Centre of mass of a uniform rod
• Consider a uniform a uniform rod of mass M and its length
is L.
• The rod is placed along X-axis with its left end at the origin
O. A small element of thickness dx at distance x from O.
Rigid body rotation
• Consider a rigid body is rotating about Z-axis as shown.
• A particle at point P of the body describes a circle with a
centre C on the axis with velocity v tangent to the circle.
• Let P’ be the position of
the particle after an
interval of time ∆t .
• The angle PCP’ describes
the angular displacement
∆θ of the particle in ∆t.
• The S.I unit of angular
displacement is radian.
• ∆θ = ∆S/r
Rigid body rotation…….

• Angular velocity(ω):
• The rate of change of angular displacement with time is
known as angular velocity.
• Average angular velocity =

• (Instantaneous) angular velocity,

• Angular velocity is a vector.
• The S.I unit of ω is rad/s.
• The relation between linear velocity and angular velocity is,
v=ωxr
• Here ω is along (Z-axis from the diagram) perpendicular to
v.
Rigid body rotation…….
• Angular acceleration( ):
• The time rate of change of angular velocity is
called angular acceleration.

• Tangential acceleration at = r
• S.I unit of angular acceleration is rad s-2
Equations of Rotational Motion
Equations of Rotational Motion…………
Equations of Rotational motion……..
 Moment of force or Torque
• The rotational analogue of force is moment of force.
• It is also referred to as torque or couple.
• If a force acts on a single particle
at a point P whose position with
respect to the origin O is given by
the position vector r,
torque on the particle = r x F
= r F sinθ
= (r sinθ) F
• = r (F sinθ)
• r sinθ is the perpendicular distance
of the line of action of F from the origin.
• F sinθ is the component of F in the direction perpendicular to
r
Torque . . . . ..
• The S.I unit of torque is Nm or J and its CGS unit
is dyne cm.
• [Torque] = [ML2T-2 ]
• Torque is the turning effect of the force about the
axis of rotation.
• It is measured as the product of the magnitude of
the force and perpendicular distance between the
line of action of the force and the axis of rotation.
• It is a vector quantity.
• It depends on (i) The magnitude of the force
(ii) The perpendicular distance of the line of
action of the force from the axis of rotation.