ROTATIONAL MOTION

OBJECTIVE
Understanding the dynamic of a rotating disc and the conservation of angular momentum
and mechanical energy. Solving to moment of inertia of a rotating disc.
THEORY
Rotational motion is the motion of an object moving across a circular line.
In a circular motion the velocity doesnot change but the direction does. The object will
have an acceleration that is called 'centripetal acceleration' and defined as:

Where v is the velocity and r is the radius.

The linear velocity and centripetal acceleration of the object 'p' In equation :

we have ve , so we can define

With the derivation of velocity equation, acceleration of the object will be;

In equation ( so we get equation;

The components of the acceleration vector as ;

and , then ;

In equation (39) . This means the direction of the acceleration of the object is into the
center of the circular path.
The average velocity of a rotating object is called average angular velocity (w) and is given in
the next equation:

The instantaneous angular velocity is:

To find its direction we use the right hand rule.

The average acceleration of a rotating object is called average angular acceleration and is
given in the next equation:

The instantaneous acceleration when time is zero is:

Linear acceleration have other two components that are tangential acceleration and
centripetal acceleration.
If the angular velocity increased its speed, the acceleration will head to its same direction.
If it decreases the acceleration head to the opposite direction.

The total kinetic energy will be ;

The equation in parentheses describes 'the moment of inertia' and symbolized with 'I';
The value of moment of inertia of an object depends of its shape and rotating axis.

“ ”: density of the body

“ ”: volume element of the body
“r”: radius of the body
The rotational kinetic energy of a body or an object will be:

Torque ( ): The cross product of the 'applied force' and the distance between applied force
and ' the point where the force is applied ' gives us the 'torque'

If we want to calculate different torques from different forces

Here ( - ) means the opposite direction to F1 ( F1 is in direction clockwise , F2 is in counter

clockwise )
F3 has no action in rotation then we do not calculate the torque from this.
Because the applied force to the body is tangential to the rotating axis we can describe the
torque as;
Here we will use angular acceleration instead of linear acceleration, then the equation (53)
will be;

This gives us the torque of ith particle and the total torque of the body will be;

“ ” describes the moment of inertia then the general formula of torque is

(56)
Angular Momentum (L): Angular momentum of an object is described as rotation of the
linear momentum of that object relative to a point.

r: position vector that is relative to linear momentum vector with the rotating axis
P: linear position vector
The direction of 'L' vector can be found by 'the right hand rule'.
With the general equation of linear momentum we get;

The change in angular momentum that is formed by an applied force is equal to the torque
that is formed by that applied force.

Here the first term is equal to zero ( ), then ;

The angular momentum of ith particle of a rigid body is described as;

So the total angular momentum of the whole body will be;

The expression with parentheses in is the same with and describes the moment of inertia,
then will be;
PROCEDURE
1-Measurement of Angular Velocity

1) Set up the system so that the lower disk is fixed and the upper disk is movable.
2) Set the “Pulse Counter” to the position where it reads the upper disk.
3) Operate the compressor.
4) Hold the upper disk stationary by your hand. Wait for the digital display indicate zero.
5) Make the upper disk rotate by applying force for only once by your hand.
6) Record the successively read data to Table 6.
7) The values you read are the numbers of the bars that pass by the sensor in 1 second ( ).
Calculate the angular velocity of the disk by using this information;

Value of Angle (Degrees) = (360/200) ß

Value of Angle (Radians) = Value of Angle x 2π/360
We obtain the angular velocity when we divide this angle value by 1 second.
w = Value of Angle (Radians) /1s
When we write this solution in simple form, we obtain;

To Find the Rotational Moment of Inertia

1) Set up the system so that the lower disk is fixed and the upper disk is movable.
2) Set the “Pulse Counter” to the position where it reads the upper disk.
3) Attach to the upper disk the small radius torque reel and the ring on the end of the string
which is tied to the weight. Pull the string out from the notch on the torque reel.
4) Pass the string of the weight through the notch on the reel and let it hang downwards. It
must be made sure that the string does not make an angle between its exit from the
torque reel and the reel. For that reason the torque reel must wind the string in right
direction. 5) Attach the 10 g mass to the weight mounting apparatus.
6) Operate the compressor.
7) Raise the weight up to the reel by winding the string onto the torque reel.
8) Release the system free after observing that the digital display indicates zero.
9) Record the values read by the sensor to Table 7.
10) The values are read with intervals of 1 second. Take care of this.
11) Calculate the angular velocity for each data by using the read values.
12) Draw angular velocity versus time curve on millimeter paper.
13) The slope of the drawn curve gives us the angular acceleration.
14) Calculate the torque by using. In this equation, force is the hanging weight and the force
distance (r) is the radius of the torque reel. There is an angle of 90º between these two
vectors.

Find the rotational moment of inertia by using the torque value obtained by and the
angular acceleration obtained from the curve.
Compare this calculated value with the value found from the moment of inertia for the disk.
The moment of inertia for the disk is;

1) In this equation, “M” is the mass of the moving upper disk and “R” is the radius of the
upper disk.
2) Compare the calculated theoretical moment of inertia and the experimental moment of
inertia. Perform its error calculation.
3) Repeat the complete procedure with the larger torque reel.
4) Repeat the procedure with larger and smaller torque reels when upper and lower disks
are aluminum.
III) Conservation of Angular Momentum
1) Install the two stainless steel disks such that the bottom and top disks will move
independently. Mount the plug number “2 onto the upper disk.
2) First of all rotate the upper disk when the plug number “2” that is mounted to the upper
disk is closed with the plug number “4”. Be sure that the lower disk is motionless in this
time.
3) Note the number of bars into Table 7 which is read by the sensor while the plug is closed.
This value will give us the angular velocity of the upper disk.
4) Remove the plug number “4” form the plug number “2” and note the number of bars read
by the sensor in Table 3. This value will give us the angular velocity of the joint motion of
the lower and upper disks.
5) Calculate the initial and final angular momentums by using the data in Table 7.
6) Interpret the results. Compare the initial and final angular momentum and perform error
calculation.
7) Repeat the same procedure when the upper disk is aluminum.

IV) Calculation of Kinetic Energy and Potential Energy

1) Install the stainless steel disks so that the lower disk is fixed and the upper disk is movable.
2) Install the smaller radius torque reel and the weight pin onto the upper disk.
 3) Attach the 10 g mass to the weight mounting apparatus.
4) Pass the weight string through the groove of the reel and leave its end free.
5) Wind the weight string onto the torque reel.
6) Wait until the digital display indicates “zero” and then release the upper disk.
7) Write down the number of bars read initially.
8) Show equality of energy from displacement of the weight in the vertical axis and from its
speed at the end of 1 second.
9) The potential energy which the weight had at the beginning was;
10) Repeat the same procedure by using the larger radius torque reel and the
aluminum upper disk.

( )
Here, “r” is the radius of the torque reel.

Figure 25. Period of 1 second from start of motion of the upper disk and angular velocities.

The kinetic energy which the weight has at the end of 1 second is;

In this equation;

Here, is the angular velocity found from the number of bars read by the sensors in 1
second (Figure 25). And can be found from the equation of The moment
of inertia concerned here is the moment of inertia of the upper d isk. It is calculated for the
steel and aluminum disks in part II of the experiment. After these values are obtained, can
easily be found.
In the above kinetic energy equation, , It should be noted that the radius used
when calculating the linear speed is the radius of the torque reel.
9) The potential and the kinetic energy must be equal. Perform error calculation by
comparing PE and KE.
LABORATORY REPORT
I) Measurement of Angular Velocity

TABLE 1

Number of Bars
Angular Velocity
Read

165 5.18 rad/s

181 5.68 rad/s

175 5.49 rad/s

170 5.34 rad/s

164 5.15 rad/s

158 4.96 rad/s

153 4.8 rad/s

163 5.12 rad/s

‫قيم ص‬
7
Angular velocity

6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0 2 4 6 8 10

time in second
 II) Calculation of Rotational Moment of Inertia

TABLE 2

Number of Bars Read Angular Velocity

Aluminum Steel Disk Aluminum Steel Disk

Disk (R=6.3 cm) (R=6.3 cm) Disk (R=6.3 cm) (R=6.3 cm)
t(s)
Torque Torque Torque Torque Torque Torque Torque Torque
Max. Max. Max. Max. Max. Max. Max. Max.
(r=1.3 (r=2.5 (r=1.3 (r=2.5 (r=1.3 (r=2.5 (r=1.3 (r=2.5
cm) cm) cm) cm) cm) cm) cm) cm)

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

1 2 71 6 33 0.06 2.23 0.18 1.03

3 175 172 43 66 5.49 5.4 1.35 2.07

5 39 132 90 100 1.22 4.14 2.82 3.14

7 53 116 12 26 1.66 3.64 0.37 0.81

9 74 162 70 54 2.32 5.08 2.19 1.69

aluminium disk when r = 1.3

Angular velocity

Time in seconds

The slope of the angular speed-time curve that is drawn by using the data in Table 2 will give
us the angular acceleration “ ”.
Slope = 0.0828 rad/sec^2
= (0.01 x 10) x 0.013 = 0.0013 N.m
(experimental) = 0.0157 kg.m^2
(theoretical) = 0.014805
% Error:

aluminium disk when r =2.5

Angular velocity

Time in seconds

steel disk when r = 1.3

Angular velocity

Time in seconds
 aluminium disk when r = 1.3

Angular velocity

Time in seconds
III) Preservation of Angular Momentum

TABLE 8

Upper Disk Aluminum Upper Disk Steel

(R=6.3 cm) (R=6.3 cm)

256 8.04 0.1190322 240 7.53 0.4316949 341 10.7 0.45529 39 1.22 0.103761
% Error:
IV) Calculation of Kinetic Energy and Potential Energy
36

0.229 J

0.066895 J
QUESTIONS

1. What can be the reasons of experimental errors?

2. What would be the moment of inertia if we use ring with same mass and radius instead of
disk?