KINEMATICS - this is the study of VELOCITY and ACCELERATION without reference to the

forces causing motion.

ANGULAR VELOCITY AND ACCELERATION

1. SYMBOLS USED - these are shown below and are all lower case letters. With the exception of
the symbol for time they are all taken from the GREEK alphabet.

SYMBOL MEANING UNITS

 Displacement Radians (rad)

t Time taken Seconds (s)

1 Initial velocity Radians per second (rad.s-1)

2 Final velocity and

 Acceleration and
deceleration or retardation Radians per second2 (rad.s-2)

2. DISPLACEMENT - consider a point P that rotates in a circular path of radius r about centre O.
When the point rotates from A to B such that:

Length of Arc (AB) = Radius

or s = r

then the angle swept out by the radius OA (i.e. ) is defined

THE RADIAN IS THE ANGLE SUBTENDED BY AN ARC

Now, Length of Arc = Radius x Angle in Radians

 s = r 1

or  = s 2
r

Now if point P makes one complete revolution about centre O then:

s = Circumference of = 2 r
Circular Path

and also  = 360

Hence from equation 2:

360 = 2  r
r

 360  2 radians = 1 revolution 3

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Unit Conversion

To change DEGREES RADIANS

Radians = Degrees x 2  4
360

To change RADIANS DEGREES

Degrees = Radians x 360 5

EXAMPLE 1 - (a) convert the following into radians giving answers to 2 d.p.: (i) 90  and (ii) 216
and (b) express (i) and (ii) in terms of . (Answers: 1.57, 3.77, /2 and 6/5)

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EXAMPLE 2 – 20 metres of wire rope is to be wound onto, and along the length of, a drum of 600
mm diameter. Determine the number of revolutions to be made by the winding drum to two
decimal places. (Answer: 10.61 revs)

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3. ANGULAR VELOCITY – this is defined as the rate of change of angular displacement or the
angle turned through in unit time.

 Angular Velocity = Rate of Change of Displacement

= Displacement
2
 Time

  =  6 NOTE – this also gives

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Unit Conversion – angular speed is often expressed in REVOLUTIONS per MINUTE as well as
radians per second. Now if point P (see diagram on page 1) makes N revolutions about centre O in
one minute then:

angle turned through,  = 2 N radians

and t = 1 minute (or 60 seconds)

hence from equation 6  = 2  N 7 NOTE – N is the circular

EXAMPLE 3 – a 500.0 mm diameter flywheel revolves at a constant speed of 1460. revs.min -1.
Determine:
(a) the angular velocity in radians per second giving the answer to 2 d.p.
(b) the number of radians displaced in 3.000 minutes and
(c) the distance travelled by a point on the rim of the flywheel in 3.000 minutes. Give answer in
metres and to two decimal places. (Answers: 152.89 rad.s-1, 27520 rad and 6880 m)

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4. ACCELERATION – this is defined as the rate of change of angular velocity.

Angular Acceleration = Rate of Change of Velocity

= Change in Velocity
Time

= Final Velocity - Initial Velocity

  = 2 - 1 8
t

or 2 = 1 + t 9

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EXAMPLE 4 – find the acceleration of a flywheel whose speed is increased from 240. to 420.
revs.min-1 in a time of 5.00 seconds. (Answer: 3.77 rad.s-2)

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5. VELOCITY - TIME GRAPHS - these are based on exactly the same principles as outlined in
the section on linear velocity and acceleration. Hence similar equations of motion are derived
and these are summarised below.

SUMMARY OF EQUATIONS FOR CONSTANT ACCELERATION

2= 1 + t 10

 = 1(1 +2)t 11
2 These are known as the equations of motion
and are only valid for constant acceleration.
= 1t + 1t2 12 Note that is negative for deceleration.
2

22 = 12 + 2 13

USE THE EQUATIONS OF MOTION TO SOLVE THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLES 5, 6 & 7

EXAMPLE 5 - an electric motor is brought uniformly to rest in 20. revolutions from a speed of
1.0x103 revs.min-1. Determine:

(a) the time taken and

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EXAMPLE 6 - a turbine is rotating at a constant speed of 1.20x10 3 revs.min-1. It then accelerates
uniformly at 3.00 rad.s-2 during which time it displaces 900. radians. Determine:

(a) its final speed in revs.min-1 and

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EXAMPLE 7 - a 1.00 metre diameter flywheel is decelerated at 6.00 rad.s-2. Determine:

(a) the time required to bring it to rest from a speed of 3.00 revs.sec-1
(b) the angular displacement made, in both radians and revolutions, during this time and
(c) the distance travelled in metres by a point on the flywheels rim during this time.
(Answers: 3.14 s, 29.6 rad and 4.71 revs and 14.8 m)

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