Sections
Glossary
Glossary
- angular acceleration
- the rate of change of angular velocity with time
- angular momentum
- the product of moment of inertia and angular velocity
- change in angular velocity
- the difference between final and initial values of angular velocity
- kinematics of rotational motion
- describes the relationships among rotation angle, angular velocity, angular acceleration, and time
- law of conservation of angular momentum
- angular momentum is conserved, i.e., the initial angular momentum is equal to the final angular momentum when no external torque is applied to the system
- moment of inertia
- mass times the square of perpendicular distance from the rotation axis; for a point mass, it is and, because any object can be built up from a collection of point masses, this relationship is the basis for all other moments of inertia
- right-hand rule
- direction of angular velocity ω and angular momentum L in which the thumb of your right hand points when you curl your fingers in the direction of the disk's rotation
- rotational inertia
- resistance to change of rotation; the more rotational inertia an object has, the harder it is to rotate
- rotational kinetic energy
- the kinetic energy due to the rotation of an object. This is part of its total kinetic energy
- tangential acceleration
- the acceleration in a direction tangent to the circle at the point of interest in circular motion
- torque
- the turning effectiveness of a force
- work-energy theorem
- if one or more external forces act upon a rigid object, causing its kinetic energy to change from to , then the work done by the net force is equal to the change in kinetic energy