Useful Moment of Inertia Formulas

Note: In the table below, the overbar indicates the moment of inertia is taken about an axis that passes through the centroid, denoted as C. Parallel axis theorems are:
I xy = I xy + Ax y I y = I y + Ad I x = I x + Ad 2 Here, A is the area of the shape, d is the distance from the centroidal axis to the desired parallel axis, and x y are the x and y distances of the centroid from the origin of the desired coordinate frame.
2

Rectangle: I x = 1 bh 3 12 I y = 1 b 3 h 12
I xy = 0

I x = 1 bh 3 3 I y = 1 b3h 3

y b/2

y`

Area = bh

C h/2

x` x

Triangle: I x = 1 bh 3 36
I xy = b(b 2 s ) h 2 72

I x = 1 bh 3 12
Area = 1 bh 2
h C

h/3 b

x` x

Circle: I x = I y = 1 r 4 4
I xy = 0
r
2

y C x

Area = r

Semi-circle: I x = I y = 1 r 4 8
I xy = 0

I x ' = 8 r 4 8 9
Area =

y r C 4r/3 x` x

r 2 2

Ellipse: I x = 1 ab 3 4
I xy = 0

I y = 1 a 3b 4
b

y r C x

Area = ab