36: Rotational Motion

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We can describe the rotation of a solid body about an axis in a manner similar to the way we describe linear motion.

First, instead of the giving position of the body along an axis, we specify its rotation angle \(\theta\) relative to an agreed-upon zero rotation angle. Then we define an angular velocity \(\omega\) in a way similar to the definition of linear velocity:

\[\omega=\frac{d \theta}{d t}\]

We also define an angular acceleration \(\alpha\) that's analogous to linear acceleration:

\[\alpha=\frac{d \omega}{d t}=\frac{d^{2} \theta}{d t^{2}}\]

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