Chapter 10: Rotation of a Rigid Object about a Fixed Axis
From Textbook “Physics for Scientists and Engineers (with
Modern Physics)”, Serway & Jewett, Thomson
PHYV101 Slides by Dr. David Waswa Brooks/Cole Publishers 1
After this section you should be able to...
1. Define average and instantaneous angular velocity and angular
acceleration.
2. Convert degrees to radians, and conversely.
3. Know that each particle in an object rotating about a fixed axis has
the same angular velocity and angular acceleration.
4. Obtain equations of motion for an object undergoing rotational motion
from the equations of motion in a straight line.
5. Derive relationships between linear and rotational motion (viz v = rω
and at = rα).
6. Solve problems on the above.
When an extended object such as a wheel rotates about its axis,
the motion cannot be analysed by modelling the object as a particle
because at any given time different parts of the object have different
linear velocities and linear accelerations.
We can, however, analyse the motion of an extended object by
modelling it as a system of many particles, each of which has its own
linear velocity and linear acceleration (Assumption: the object is rigid).
A rigid object is one that is non deformable; that is, the relative
locations of all particles of which the object is composed remain constant
Consider rotation of a rigid object about a fixed axis eg compact disc,
or CD
GOAL: To describe the position of point P in time as a function of the
angle theta 𝜃
Angular Position: 𝑟
𝜃 𝑠
The arc length s is related to the angle 𝜃
sin 𝜃 ≈ 𝜃
Units of radians (rad)
Assume the disc rotates 3600 , then
0
Converting from degrees to radians:360 = 2𝜋𝑟 2𝜋 rad = 3600
𝜋 rad = 1800
𝜋
0
360 = a circumference of a circle 𝜃 =
2𝜋𝑟 rad = 900
= 2𝜋 rad 2
𝑟
π
The angle in radians will be θ rad = x θ degrees
1800
Angular displacement
In time interval ∆𝑡 = 𝑡𝑓 − 𝑡𝑖 , the angular displacement of the rigid object is
Angular speed
Average angular speed is the rate of change of angular displacement
Units of rad/s or simply /s
Instantaneous Angular Speed:
average angular acceleration
Average angular acceleration, 𝛼𝑎𝑣𝑔 is the rate of change of angular
speed
units of radians per second squared (rad/s2), or simply s2
Instantaneous Angular
acceleration:
NOTE:
✓ Angular Velocity and Angular Acceleration are vectors
The above equations describe the magnitudes
✓ POSITIVE sign for ANTICLOCKWISE direction
✓ NEGATIVE sign for CLOCKWISE direction
✓ The angular velocity of all points on a rigid body is
☞ The same (or else it would deform and not be rigid)
Finding Relationships between Linear and Rotational EQUATIONS
The corresponding terms for linear motion and rotational motion
seen thus far:
Previously for LINEAR MOTION with constant acceleration we derived
four equations of motion
We can follow the same method for ANGULAR MOTION
This yields the following comparative equations:
Linear Motion Angular Motion
𝑣+𝑢 𝜔𝑓 + 𝜔𝑖
𝑠= t ∆𝜃 = 𝑡
2 2
𝑣 = 𝑢+at 𝜔𝑓 = 𝜔𝑖 +∝t
1 2 1 2
𝑠 = 𝑢𝑡 + 𝑎𝑡 ∆𝜃 = 𝜔𝑖 𝑡 + ∝𝑡
2 2
𝑣 2 = 𝑢 2 + 2𝑎𝑠 𝜔𝑓2 = 𝜔𝑖2 + 2 ∝ ∆𝜃
Textbook notation:
Chapter 10: Problem 3
During a certain time interval, the angular position of a swinging door is
described by 𝜃 = 5 + 10𝑡 + 2𝑡 2 where 𝜃 is in radians and t is in seconds.
Determine the angular position, angular speed, and angular acceleration
of the door (a) at t = 0 and (b) at t = 3 s.
10.2 Finding Relationships between Linear and Rotational
QUANTITIES
We know 𝑠 = 𝑟𝜃, then
𝑑𝑠 𝑑𝜃
𝑣= =𝑟
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡
𝑑𝜃
Given that
𝑑𝑡
= 𝜔,
Then
We can relate the angular acceleration of the rotating
rigid object to the tangential acceleration of the point P
by taking the time derivative of v:
Angular Motion Circular Motion
𝑣2
𝑎𝐶 = = 𝜔2 𝑟
𝑟
Chapter 10: Problem 5
A wheel starts from rest and rotates with constant angular
acceleration to reach an angular speed of 12.0 rad/s in 3 s. Find (a)
the magnitude of the angular acceleration of the wheel and (b) the
angle in radians through which it rotates in this time interval.
𝜔𝑓 − 𝜔𝑖 12 − 0
𝜔𝑓 = 𝜔𝑖 +∝ 𝑡, ∝= = = 4 𝑟𝑎𝑑/𝑠 2
𝑡 3
1 1
𝜃 = 𝜔𝑖 t + ∝ 𝑡 = 0 3 + (4)(3)2 = 18 𝑟𝑎𝑑
2
2 2
Chapter 10: Problem 23
A car traveling on a flat (unbanked), circular track accelerates uniformly
from rest with a tangential acceleration of 1.70 m/s2. The car makes it
one-quarter of the way around the circle before it skids off the track.
From these data, determine the coefficient
