Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
The moment of inertia of a basic shape, rotating around its center, can be found in a table of moments of inertia. That's easy.
But suppose an object with a basic shape is rotating around some OFF-CENTER point? The object below is a square plate of mass M and side length L.
In such a case, you can start with the moment of inertia of the shape, but then add an extra term that accounts for the off-center location of the rotation.
Q: What is the moment of inertia of the plate around its center? Q: What is the distance d?
Right.
That means that when we put the pieces together, the moment of inertia of the plate rotating around point P is
Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
