PH212 Reading Week 1 and Week 2

Chapter 12 Rotation of a Rigid Body

You will find here what is expected from you during the following week or two in class.
We will start with a chapter that will keep us busy for nearly 2 weeks. Therefore this first
document will cover more than the first week. Generally I will try to write these
document for each week, just like you are used to it from PH 211.

PH 212 we will start by studying 2 and 3-dimensional objects. In PH211 we had mostly
reduced objects to a point. Remember each Free Body Diagram was drawn by
reducing the object under investigation to a point. Now we will look at extended rigid
bodies. We will learn about moment of inertial, torque and angular momentum.

The first two weeks of PH 212 are difficult in a strange way. Many of the concepts of
rotational motion will seem familiar because we have dealt with some of the concepts
when discussing uniform circular motion, or because you see how similar the physics of
rotational motion is when you compare it to linear motion that we studied in PH 211. In
PH 211 we learned that there is no force necessary to keep a body in linear motion.
Actually this was possibly the most fundamental learning last term. “A body at rest
stays at rest, a body in motion stays in motion unless acted up by an external force”. In
PH 211 we then studied that how the sum of all forces (the net force) will result in a
change of the velocity of a body. Now we go one step further.

To look at extended rigid bodies we need to check if the body is linearly moving, and
then also if the body is rotating (changing its orientation). We will learn that a body will
not change its angular motion unless a net torque is acting on it. When we introduced
mass in PH 211 we saw that mass is closely related to inertia. A heavier body is
accelerating less than a lighter body, when an equal force is acting on the bodies. The
role of mass in linear motion will be taken by the moment of inertia in rotational motion,
so you will need to understand the difference between mass and moment of inertia.

Student Learning Objectives

 To extend the particle model to the rigid-body model.

 To understand the equilibrium of an extended object.
 To understand rotation about a fixed axis.
 To draw a torque diagram
 To understand rolling motion.
 To introduce the vector description of rotational motion and angular momentum.
 To reflect on the use of Vpython to solve physics problems. See the links I
posted on Moodle in the lab support section.
Some questions that the successful student can answer after reading the text
Chapters 12.1 Rotational Motion

1. What is a rigid Body?

2. In which case does the rigid-body model fail?

3. How could you determine the angular velocity ω = ω (t) for rotational motion?

4. How could you determine the angular acceleration α = α (t) for rotational motion?

5. How is the instantaneous radial (linear) velocity vr related to ω?

6. How is the instantaneous radial (linear) acceleration ar related to ω?

7. How is the instantaneous radial (linear) acceleration ar related to α?

Chapters 12.2 Rotation about the center of mass

8. What is unique at the point we call center of mass for an unconstrained object?

9. How do you calculate xcm the x coordinate of the center of mass of an object that
consists of several masses mi?

10. How do you calculate ycm the y coordinate of the center of mass of an object that
consists of several masses mi?

11. How do you calculate xcm the x coordinate of the center of mass of an object that has
continuous mass distribution? (integration)
Chapters 12.3 Rotational Energy

12. How do you calculate the moment of inertia I of an object that consists of several
masses mi?

13. Does the moment of inertia I of an object depend on the axis of rotation?

14. How do you calculate the rotational kinetic energy of an object using its moment of
intertia I?

15. What is the difference between inertia and moment of inertia?

16. How do you calculate the moment of inertia for a solid cylinder about the center?

17. How do you calculate the moment of inertia for a solid sphere about the diameter?

18. How do you calculate the mechanical energy of an object? Explain all variables you
use.

Chapters 12.4 Calculating Moment of Inertia

Work carefully through this chapter. We will take a class and have an HIP about this.
You will need it. The moment it clicks, it usually clicks for good. These kinds of
integration come back in PH213.

Chapters 12.5 Torque

19. What are the 3 factors the ability of a force to cause a rotation depend on?

20. How do you calculate the torque acting on an object? Explain all variables you use.
21. Is torque defined to be positive when applied clockwise or counterclockwise?

22. Why is the statement: “The torque is 20Nm” meaningless? What other information
do you need to add to the statement?

23. How do you calculate the net torque on an object?

24. When the net force on an object is equal to zero, does that mean that the net torque
is also equal to zero?

25. If that is possible, give an example where the net force is equal to zero, and the net
torque is not equal to zero.

26. How do you calculate the gravitational torque?

27. How are the units of torque different to the units of energy?

28. Does it make sense to express the torque on a rigid body in units of Joule?

Chapters 12.6 Rotational Dynamics

29. State Newton’s second law for rotational motion.

30. What is a torque diagram? (We will introduce this in class!)

Chapters 12.7 Rotation About a Fixed Axis

Read and understand Example 12.12

Chapters 12.8 Static Equilibrium

31. What are the two conditions that are necessary for an extended object to be in static
equilibrium?

32. Consider two different points A and B of rigid body. If an object is not rotating
around point A, can it be rotating around point B?

33. Describe in words the critical angle of a car.

34. You might have seen a car roll over while driving with high speed through a turn.
Draw a picture showing the critical angle θc of a car.

35. Can the critical angle of a car ever be 0?

Chapters 12.9 Rolling Motion

36. How can you calculate the velocity of the center of mass for rolling motion of a
cylinder? Explain all variables you use.

37. What is the instantaneous velocity of the lowest point of a rolling cylinder that rolls
with a speed of vcm = 1 m/s?

38. What is the instantaneous velocity of the highest point of a rolling cylinder that rolls
with a speed of vcm = 1 m/s?

39. How can you calculate the total kinetic energy of a rolling object? Explain all
variables you use.
Chapters 12.10 The Vector Description of Rotational Motion

40. In which direction does the angular velocity vector of the second hand of the clock in
the front of the classroom point?

41. The cross product of two vector is a) a vector, b) a scalar ?

42. Using the cross product of vector, how can you define and calculate the torque
vector? Include a picture showing all vectors in your equation.

Chapters 12.11 Angular Momentum

43. How is the angular momentum vector defined? Show a picture including all vectors
included in your equation.

44. In which direction does the angular momentum vector of the very tip of the second
hand of the clock in the front of the classroom point?

45. How is the vector representing the net torque mathematically related to the angular
momentum vector?

46. Assume a rotating object under the influence of no net torque. What will happen to
the angular momentum of that object?

47. How is the angular momentum related to the moment of inertia and the angular
velocity?

Chapters 12.12 Advanced Topic: Precession of a Gyroscope

We will not discuss this chapter in class.