Rotational Inertia

GIVEN: Assorted PVC materials that will be used to assemble a rotational device,

as shown in the diagram.

TASK: Test the relationship between a torque exerted on an object and the angular acceleration of that object about an axis.

Lab Report: Should include free body diagrams, a mathematical derivation relating torque and

angular acceleration and a graphical representation of the acquired data. The moment of inertia of your object should be determined graphically. Be sure to address the physical meaning of the y-intercept.

EXTENSION 1: Estimate the moment of inertia of the object assuming it consists of a tall cylinder, with a rod on top rotating about the midpoint, and two point masses at the ends of the rod. Determine a % difference between this estimate and your experimental value.

EXTENSION 2: Modify the apparatus to qualitatively investigate factors that affect the rotational inertia of the rotating arms.

EXTENSION 3: Construct a graph of torque versus angular velocity and use or modify it to determine the moment of inertia.

(Thanks to Dolores Gende for this activity)