Chapter 4

Angular motion
 Introduction
As was stated in Chapter 3, most natural
movements of animals consist of both linear
and angular motion. In this chapter, we will
analyze some aspects of angular motion
contained in the movement of animals.
 4.1 Forces on a Curved Path

The simplest angular motion is one in which

the body moves along a curved path at a
constant angular velocity, as when a runner
travels along a circular path or an automobile
rounds a curve. The usual problem here is to
calculate the centrifugal forces and determine
their effect on the motion of the object.
Consider a car of weight W moving on a curved
level road that has a radius of curvature R. The
centrifugal force Fc exerted on the moving car is
For the car to remain on the curved path, a
centripetal force must be provided by the
frictional force between the road and the tires.
The car begins to skid on the curve when the
centrifugal force is greater than the frictional
force.
When the car is on the verge of skidding, the
centrifugal force is just equal to the frictional
force; that is,
Here μ is the coefficient of friction between the
tires and the road surface.
From Eq. 4.2, the maximum velocity v max
without skidding is

Safe speed on a curved path may be increased

by banking the road along the curve. If the road
is properly banked, skidding may be prevented
without recourse to frictional forces.
Figure 4.1 shows a car rounding a curve banked
at an angle Ɵ. In the absence of friction, the reaction
force Fn acting on the car must be perpendicular to
the road surface. The vertical component of this
force supports the weight of the car. That is,

To prevent skidding on a frictionless surface, the

total centripetal force must be provided by the
horizontal component of Fn ; that is,

where R is the radius of road curvature.

FIGURE 4.1 Banked curve.
The angle Ɵ for the road bank is obtained by
taking the ratio of Eqs. 4.4 and 4.5. This yields
 4.2 A Runner on a Curved Track
A runner on a circular track is subject to the same
type of forces described in discussion of the
automobile. As the runner rounds the curve, she
leans toward the center of rotation (Fig. 4.2a). The
reason for this position can be understood from an
analysis of the forces acting on the runner. Her foot,
as it makes contact with the ground, is subject to the
two forces, shown in Fig. 4.2b:an upward force W,
which supports her weight, and a centripetal
reaction force Fcp , which counteracts the centrifugal
force. The resultant force Fr acts on the runner at an
angle Ɵ with respect to the vertical axis.
If the runner were to round the curve remaining
perpendicular to the surface, this resultant force
would not pass through her center of gravity and
an unbalancing torque would be applied on the
runner . If the runner adjusts her position by
leaning at an angle Ɵ toward the center of
rotation, the resultant force Fr passes through
her center of gravity and the unbalancing torque
is eliminated.
The angle Ɵ is obtained from the relationships
(see Fig. 4.2b)

And

Therefore
 Example
What is The proper angle for a speed of 6.7
m/sec (this is a 4-min. mile) on a 15-m radius
track ?
V= 6.7 m/sec , R= 15 m Ɵ=?
 4.3 Pendulum
Since the limbs of animals are pivoted at the joints,
the swinging motion of animals is basically angular.
Many of the limb movements in walking and
running can be analyzed in terms of the swinging
movement of a pendulum.
The simple pendulum shown in Fig. 4.3 consists of
a weight attached to a string, the other end of
which is attached to a fixed point. If the pendulum
is displaced a distance A from the center position
and then released, it will swing back and forth
under the force of gravity. Such a back-and-forth
movement is called a simple harmonic motion.
FIGURE 4.3 The simple pendulum.
The number of times the pendulum swings back and forth
per second is called frequency (f ).
The time for completing one cycle of the motion (i.e.,
from A to A’ and back to A) is called the period T.
Frequency and period are inversely related; that is, T 1/f.
If the angle of displacement is small, the period is given by

where g is the gravitational acceleration and l is the

length of the pendulum arm.
The acceleration is tangential to the path of
the swing and is at a maximum when the
pendulum begins to return toward the center. The
maximum tangential acceleration amax at this
point is given by

As the pendulum is accelerated toward the center,

its velocity increases,and the potential energy is
converted to kinetic energy. The velocity of the
pendulum is at its maximum when the pendulum
passes the center position (0).
At this point the energy is entirely in the form
of kinetic energy, and the velocity
(vmax) here is given by
 4.4 Walking
Some aspects of walking can be analyzed in terms
of the simple harmonic motion of a pendulum. The
motion of one foot in each step can be considered
as approximately a half-cycle of a simple harmonic
motion (Fig. 4.4). Assume that a person walks at a
rate of 120 steps/min (2 steps/sec) and that each
step is 90 cm long. In the process of walking each
foot rests on the ground for 0.5 sec and then
swings forward 180 cm and comes to rest again 90
cm ahead of the other foot. Since the forward
swing takes 0.5 sec,
 the full period of the harmonic motion is 1 sec.
The speed of walking v is
v = 90 cm×2 steps/sec = 1.8m/sec (4 mph)

FIGURE 4.4 Walking.

The maximum velocity of the swinging foot
v max is, from Eq. 4.12,

Thus, at its maximum velocity, the foot moves

about three times faster than the body. The
maximum acceleration is

This is 3.6 times acceleration of gravity.

 4.5 Physical Pendulum
The simple pendulum shown in Fig. 4.3 is not
an adequate representation of the swinging leg
because it assumes that the total mass is
located at the end of the pendulum while the
pendulum arm itself is weightless. A more
realistic model is the physical pendulum, which
takes into account the distribution of weight
along the swinging object (see Fig. 4.5). It can
be shown
that under the force of gravity the period of
oscillation T for a physical pendulum is

Here I is the moment of inertia of the

pendulum around the pivot point O ,W is the
total weight of the pendulum, and r is the
distance of the center of gravity from the pivot
point.
 4.6 Speed of Walking and Running
In the analysis of walking and running, the leg
may be regarded as a physical pendulum with a
moment of inertia of a thin rod pivoted at one
end. The moment of inertia I for the leg
where W is the weight of the leg and is its
length. If we assume that the center of mass of
the leg is at its middle (r =1/2(L) = L/2), the
period of oscillation is

ee
Example
For a 90-cm-long leg, find it’s the period and
frequency ?
answer 1.6 sec.
We can now deduce the effect of the walker’s
size on the speed of walking.
The speed of walking is proportional to the
product of the number of steps taken in a given
time and the length of the step. The size of the
step is in turn proportional to the length of the
leg . Therefore, the speed of walking v is
proportional to
But because L /T is proportional to (see Eq.
4.15)

Thus, the speed of the natural walk of a person

increases as the square root of the length of
his/her legs. The same considerations apply to
all animals: The natural walk of a small animal
is slower than that of a large animal.
We assume that the length of the leg muscles is
proportional to the length of the leg (L) and that the
area of the leg muscles is proportional to L2 . The mass
of the leg is proportional to L3
. In other words, if one animal has a leg twice as long
as that of another animal, the area of its muscle is
four times as large and the mass of its leg is eight
times as large.
The maximum force that a muscle can produce Fm is
proportional to the area of the muscle. The maximum
torque Lmax produced by the muscle is proportional to
the product of the force and the length of the leg; that
is,
The maximum speed of running vmax is again
proportional to the product of the number of steps
per second and the length of the step. Because the
length of the step is proportional to the length of
the leg, we have

This shows that the maximum speed of running is

independent of the leg size, which is in accordance
with observation: A fox, for example, can run at
about the same speed as a horse.
 4.7 Energy Expended in Running
In Chapter 3, we obtained the energy expended in
running by calculating the energy needed to
accelerate the leg to the speed of the run and then
decelerating it to rest. Here we will use the physical
pendulum as a model for the
swinging leg to compute this same quantity. We will
assume that in running the legs swing only at the hips.
This model is, of course, not strictly correct because in
running the legs swing not only at the hips but also at
the knees.
We will now outline a method for calculating the
energy expended in swinging the legs.
This maximum rotational energy Er
Here I is the moment of inertia of the leg. The
angular velocity ωmax is obtained as follows.