Introductory Classical Mechanics Videos

Chapter 5: Rotational Motion

This chapter reviews the primary quantities of rotational motion, including rotational quantities and their vector directions, moment of inertia, torque, leverage and equilibrium, application of Newton's Laws for rotation, rotational energy and momentum, rotational collisions, and gyroscopic motion.

Concept Videos

5.1C: Rotational Quantities

This concept video describes the kinematic quantities of rotation, angular displacement, angular velocity, and angular acceleration; their vector directions based on the right hand rule; tangential quantities of motion; and parallels to translational kinematics.

5.2C: Torque, Balance, & Leverage

This concept video describe the rotational equivalent of force, torque, explaining how the it emerges from Newton's Laws and its direction, how to calculate torque, and examples of torque balance through leverage and equilibrium.

5.3C: Moment of Inertia and Shape

This concept video describes how the shape of an object changes its rotational inertia, leading to the concept of moment of inertia for rotational motion; it also explores how to build up the moments of inertia of various solid objects, the role of the rotation axis, and rotation around offset axes using the parallel axis theorem.

5.4C: Solving for Rotational and Translational Motion

This concept video describes a process for solving for both translational and rotational motion of a solid body using Newton's Laws, illustrated through the example of the unwinding spool.

5.5C: Rotational Momentum & Energy

This concept video discusses the quantities of rotational energy and momentum, including how these quantities are defined, the concept of rotational potential energy, total mechanical energy and conservation, the angular momentum vector, angular momentum conservation, and application to tidal forces between the Earth and Moon.

5.6C: Gyroscopic Motion

This concept video describes gyroscopic motion and how it emerges from the conservation of the angular momentum vector of a spinning object; this video also examines gyroscopic precession from gravitational torques, walking through the computation of the precession rate using angular quantities.

Problem Solving Videos

5.1P: Levers in the Body

This problem solving video looks at examples of torque balance and leverage in the human body, including the class 1 lever that supports our head, the class 2 lever that allows us to flex our ankle, and the class 3 lever that allows us to lift objects with our biceps muscle.

Notes

5.2P: Moments of Inertia

This problem solving video reviews how to calculate moments of inertia, including how to break down objects to build up the total moment of inertia, including a spinning sphere, and offset moment of inertia of a spinning stick.

Notes

5.3P: Solving for Translation and Rotation

This problem solving video demonstrates how to solve for the motion of an object undergoing both translational and rotational motion through Newton's Laws, with worked examples of objects rolling down inclined planes and the sliding cue ball.

Notes

5.4P: Physical Pendula

This problem solving video examines the application of rotational kinematics in physical pendula, including computing the center of mass and off-center moments of inertia, with examples for rotating sticks and swinging barbells.

Notes

5.5P: Applications of Rotational Energy

This problem solving video reviews examples of applying rotational energy to solve the motion of a ball rolling down an incline plane, a swinging bar pendulum, and struck cue ball that transforms translational into rotational motion

Notes

5.6P: Rotational Collisions

This problem solving video looks at approaches to solving cases of rotational collisions using rotational energy and momentum, with examples of colliding gear wheels and a spinning ball that bounces off a surface.

Worksheets

Worksheet 5.1: Rotational Quantities & Equilibrium

This worksheet examines the various quantities of rotation, and torque balance. Topics include: computing rotational vector quantities (right hand rule), computing torque, mechanical equilibrium, and leverage. Match to videos 5.1C-5.2C and 5.1P.

Worksheet 5.2: Rotational Dynamics

This worksheet focuses on rotational dynamics. Topics include: calculating moments of inertia, solving for rotational and translational motions, rotational energy, angular momentum, and rotational collisions. Match to videos 5.3C-5.5C and 5.2P-5.6P. [NOTE: this could be broken up into two separate worksheets]

Introductory Classical Mechanics Videos were created by Adam Burgasser and the UCSD Educational Technology Services (ETS)

This material is released under the CC-BY-NC-SA license, which allows re-users to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.

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