Skip to main content
Library homepage
 

Text Color

Text Size

 

Margin Size

 

Font Type

Enable Dyslexic Font
Physics LibreTexts

21.4: Translation and Rotation of a Rigid Body Undergoing Fixed Axis Rotation

( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\)

For the special case of rigid body of mass m, we showed that with respect to a reference frame in which the center of mass of the rigid body is moving with velocity Vcm all elements of the rigid body are rotating about the center of mass with the same angular velocity ωcm For the rigid body of mass m and momentum p=mVcm the translational equation of motion is still given by Equation (21.2.1), which we repeat in the form

Fext=mAcm

For fixed axis rotation, choose the z -axis as the axis of rotation that passes through the center of mass of the rigid body. We have already seen in our discussion of angular momentum of a rigid body that the angular momentum does not necessary point in the same direction as the angular velocity. However we can take the z -component of Equation (21.3.28)

τextcm,z=dLspincm,zdt

For a rigid body rotating about the center of mass with ωcm=ωcm,zˆk the z -component of angular momentum about the center of mass is

Lspincm,z=Icmωcm,z

The z -component of the rotational equation of motion about the center of mass is

τextcm,z=Icmdωcm,zdt=Icmαcm,z


This page titled 21.4: Translation and Rotation of a Rigid Body Undergoing Fixed Axis Rotation is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Peter Dourmashkin (MIT OpenCourseWare) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

Support Center

How can we help?