EXPERIMENT 203: Moment of Inertia

FE ANNE L. BRAGAT
Physics Department, Mapua Institute of Technology falbragat@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

For this experiment, we will deal with the determination of moment of inertia of disk and a ring including the factors affecting it to vary. The set up of the apparatus was first done followed by the experiment proper. The ability of a certain body to rotate or the moment of inertia of the two objects in combination and the disk alone, is then done at the same time. The object is allowed to rotate about its axis with the aid of mass loads which serves as the tension causing it to rotate. The I of a ring is attained from the difference of the total I and the Idisk. Afterwards, the I of a disk is computed again but this time, it is rotated about its diameter. The method used for this experiment is the application of Newtons second law and integration with respect to the change in volume. The results explain that the difference in density of an object and difference in orientation of rotation are the reasons why moment of inertia is either increase or decrease.
Key Words- Moment of Inertia, Inertia of Ring Inertia of Disk and Torque I. INTRODUCTION

The concept of moment of inertia was first introduced by Swiss mathematician and physicist Leonhard Euler in 1730. He published his theory in the book titled, Theoria

Motus Corporum Solidorum Seu Rigidorum or Theory of the Motion of Solid or Rigid Bodies. For bodies with an awkward
shape and no apparent constant, a series of experiments can help to determine the rate.

Just as mass is a measure of how readily an object accelerates due to a given force, the moment of inertia of an object measures how easily an object rotates about a particular point of rotation. Thus, objects with a larger moment of inertia about a given point will be harder to rotate with a set torque. Correspondingly, a larger torque will cause a larger acceleration on a particular body. In physics, there are rules that can be applied to find moments of inertia for a variety of shapes. The parallel axis theorem or Huygens-Steiner theorem can be used to determine the second moment of area or the mass moment of inertia of a rigid body about any axis, given the body's moment of inertia about a parallel axis through the object's centre of mass and the perpendicular distance between the axes. The perpendicular axis or plane figure theorem can be used to determine the moment of inertia of a rigid object that lies entirely within a plane, about an axis at right angles to the plane, given the moments of inertia of the object about two perpendicular axes lying within the plane. The axes must all pass through a single point in the plane. The stretch rule states that the moment of inertia of a rigid object is unchanged when the object is stretched parallel to the axis of rotation, (without changing the distribution of mass except in the direction parallel to the axis). That is, cylinders oriented parallel to the axis must not change in radius.

Newton's second law relates the acceleration that an object of a certain mass experiences when subject to a given force. There is an analogous relation between torque and angular acceleration, which introduces the concept of moment of inertia. A moment of inertia refers to the force needed to cause a rotating object to change speeds. All rotating objects have an axis, or a point that they rotate around. Some objects require more force to change the speed of this rotation than others. Those that will change their rotational speed easily have a low moment of inertia, while those that are difficult to change have a high moment of inertia.

A common example used to envision the moment of inertia is to think of an ice skater who is spinning. As the skater begins a spin, she stretches her arms and back out and away to create a slow spin. As she reaches the end of the spin, she tucks her arms in and tightens her frame, causing her to spin at a much more rapid speed. She has consolidated her mass closer to the axis, reduced her moment of inertia, and reduced the effort needed to spin quickly. With no change in force, she is able to accelerate her rotational speed. There are many practical applications for moment of inertia. Car manufacturers study it carefully to determine how quickly a car will spin out of control. The goal is to create a high moment so that the car is less likely to lose control in a spin. Many sports also use the concept with golf, baseball, and diving topping the list. Divers are concerned with which angles they can use to create the lowest moment, and the fastest spin, in order to complete the move and seamlessly enter the water. Baseball players and golfers both work to create a smooth, effective swing, to hit the ball with the correct angles and the force required to make it fly far without excessive muscle use. We always see rhythmic patterns of falling of the divers into the water on some diving shows. We observe that they moving up their feet and bend. It is their way of increasing their rates of rotation. For this experiment, we are to discuss another realm of physics, which is moment of inertia. Certain rigid bodies, like a bending human, have a resisting force to rotate it and its magnitude depends on the shape, size and the distance of rotation from the force applied. This is known to be the moment of inertia. The moment of inertia of a given body describes how hard is to change its angular motion about a given axis. It does not only deal with mass of the object itself but also how far this mass from the axis on the overall. For this particular experiment, mass moment of inertia of a ring and a disk was obtained. Moment of inertia, I, of an object with definite shape can be expressed in terms of radius (vector quantity) and a constant mass (scalar quantity).

II. METHODOLOGY The experiment is in general divided into three parts. The first part is entitled setting up the equipment. The first step is to attach the mounting rod to the smart pulley and photogate head. Connect a mass hanger to a thread and loop it around the cylinder along the vertical shaft. The thread must pass over the smart pulley. Securely place the disk on the center vertical shaft. Connect the smart timer to the photogate head and plug it to 220V source.

Figure

1: The apparatus needed for the experiments which consists of smart timer, rotating platform, shaft, smart pulley, rod, photogate head, mass hanger and mass added, disk and ring. The second part is the determination of moment of inertia of disk and ring. Place the ring on the disk. Use a vernier callper to measure the diameter of the shaft to which the thread is wound. Compute its radius. To overcome the kinetic friction, small amount of mass must be added on the pan and let it drop with a constant speed. This small mass is called friction mass. Take note, however, that it will take less friction mass to compensate the effect of friction. For this part of the experiment, friction mass should not be more than 40 grams. For the first trial, add more mass and record its acceleration. The smart timer must be set to accel, linear pulley. Solve for the experimental moment of inertia of the disk and ring. The friction mass is not included in the computation of moment of inertia. Go on with the second trial, this time

increasing the mass added and perform two more trials. Lastly, compute for the percent difference. Next experiment is entitled the determination of moment of inertia of disk rotated about the center. First step is to remove the ring from the disk and repeat the steps from the second part of the experiment.

Figure 3: The position of the apparatus when the

last experiment, the determination of moment of inertia of disk rotated about its diameter, is conducted.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Figure 2: The set up of the apparatus in experiment
entitled determination of inertia of disk rotated about the center.

The next experiment is the determination of moment of inertia of ring. Moment of inertia of ring can be measured by getting the difference between moment of inertia of disk and ring combined and moment of inertia of disk. The last experiment is to determine the moment of inertia rotated about its diameter. First, remove the disk from the vertical shaft. Insert the Dshaped hole on the hole disk to the shaft. Repeat the steps of the second procedure. Materials used include the disk and the ring, which are the unit of masses to be tested by which their moment of inertia are to be obtained. As we all know, a disk is a circular shaped object with length and is a form of a cylinder. On the other hand, a ring, which is also a form of a cylinder, is a disk with a hole on the center. Its thickness varies on the radius of the hole and the ring itself. Other than that, we also used a set of rotating platform that includes a rod, a shaft and a smart pulley. Smart timer is also to be utilized in the determination of the acceleration of the mass attached to the end of the shaft.

The moment of inertia can be easily computed by it volume and mass. By the application of Newtons Second Law of Motion, we could identify the numerical value of I. When a string, initially wrap around in a object, is attached hanging mass, the forces present to the hanging mass is its own weight and tension. On the other hand, the force causing the disk and ring to rotate is solely due to the tension. Thus, the force tension will be the torque of the system. The level arm is the radius of the object because it is the distance of the tension from the rotating axis. As the hanging mass increase, the acceleration also increases. As I observed in the data, we can accumulate greater percentage difference with the theoretical value if we are using small masses. It is due to the smart timer that we used. The smart timer is capable of giving of acceleration with an accuracy of one decimal. If small acceleration is obtained, there is a chance of greater error.

TABLE 1. Determination of Moment of Inertia of Disk and Ring (rotated about the center)

mass of disk, M DISK = 1,475.50 grams mass of ring, M RING = 1,442.10 grams radius of disk, R DISK = 11.40 cm inner radius of ring, R1 = 5.20 cm outer radius of ring, R2 = 6.50 cm

Actual value of moment of inertia of disk and ring

I TOTAL I DISK I RING 1 1 2 I TOTAL M DISK R 2 M RING R12 R2 2 2

I TOTAL = 145,262.0104 g-cm

friction mass = 10 grams radius, r = 0.85 cm (mass of pan experimental value of moment m g a r 2 TRIAL + mass acceleration, a of inertia, I a added), m 2 2 1 35 grams 0.10 cm/s 247792.21 gcm 2 2 65 grams 0.40 cm/s 115011.16 gcm2 3 80 grams 0.50 cm/s2 70768.88 gcm2 Average 144524.08 gcm2 % difference 2.27 %
In order to get the actual value of moment of inertia of disk and ring, the formula below should be used: In obtaining the moment of inertia of disk alone, the ring is removed in the set-up. By using the same formula, we could get: By comparing it with the first, the acceleration values are greater. It is because the mass of the disk is lower so it requires less amount of tension to rotate the object. The computed value of I is also much smaller than before. The excess value for that will be the moment of inertia of the ring since moment of inertia of the two components is the sum of inertia of individual components. In order to get the percent difference, the formula below should be used: ( Equation 3 The percent difference of moment of inertia is extremely lesser than the first. Since the mass is lesser, the accumulation of error is also lesser. There is also a possibility that it is caused by random errors. )

I TOTAL

1 1 2 M DISK R 2 M RING R12 R2 2 2

Equation 1

To get the experimental value of moment of inertia in table 1, the formula needed is below: m g a r 2 I a
Equation 2 The highest moment of inertia obtained in this particular experiment is the one with the highest mass (combination of two). As we all know, friction is proportional to normal force where normal force (in this setup) is also proportional to the weight of the body. Since the second and third I are of the same mass (from disk), its mass fraction are the same. It is zero since the mass of the disk is lesser compared to the total, thus it yields a negligible frictional force.

By comparing Idisk and Iring, the moment of inertia of the ring is much bigger. Although they have a mass difference, it is too small (difference of only 2.77%) to have an Idifference of 79.38 %. The responsible for this is that the ratio of the mass with volume (density). As you can see, the density of the object is proportional to moment of inertia. The difference in their density is about 84 %. In the case of the ring, the distribution of mass in a certain volume is great. By common sense, it is harder to rotate certain object which is denser compared to other. The presence of greater mass available at a specific volume answers the difference of the two. Lastly, the calculated moment of inertia of the disk (vertical) is somehow smaller than Idisk rotated horizontally. The result is shown below: The moment of inertia of the ring alone computed has a great divergence with the theoretical value. This error is only an effect of the mistakes made in the first two parts. It clearly shows that the experimental value is not relative with theoretical. Most probably, this great error is brought by the second part (where PD=0.96%).

Aside from density, another aspect can be applied in the determination of I which is orientation of rotation. We observe that Idisk when axis of rotation is about its diameter is divided into half. When the orientation is vertical, the distribution of mass is lesser. That is why they have a different moment of inertia. To get the Actual value of moment of inertia of disk in table 2, the formula below should be used:

I DISK

1 M DISK R 2 2 Equation 4
difference for the 3 should also be moment of inertia the one should be

In order to get the percent table 3 and 4, the equation used. For the actual value of of disk, the equation below is used:

I DISK

1 M DISK R 2 4 Equation 5

TABLE 2. Determination of Moment of Inertia of Disk (rotated about the center)

mass of disk, M DISK = 1,475.50 Actual value of moment of inertia of disk, grams 1 2 I DISK M DISK R 2 = 95,877.99 g-cm radius of disk, R DISK = 11 cm 2 friction mass = 10 grams radius, r = 0.85 cm (mass of pan experimental value of moment of + mass acceleration, inertia, a added), m TRIAL 1 25 grams 0.2 cm/s2 88488.19 gcm2 2 45 grams 0.3 cm/s2 106174.99 gcm2 3 65 grams 0.5 cm/s2 91999.54 gcm2 average 95654.24 gcm2 % difference 2.45 %
TABLE 4. Determination of Moment of Inertia of Disk (rotated about the diameter)

mass of disk, M DISK = 1,471 grams radius of disk, R DISK = 11.4 cm

mass of disk, M DISK = 1,471 grams radius of disk, R DISK = 11.4 cm

IV.

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES: [1]Young, H., Freedman, R., University Physics

With all the data gathered, I can say that the moment of inertia is the measure of the ability of a certain body to rotate in a given axis. It demonstrates the difficulty encountered in bringing the rigid body to an angular rotation. The moment of inertia has the same correlation to angular acceleration as mass has to linear acceleration. Although moment of inertia is analog of mass, it doesnt mean that it is also constant. It may vary depending on the volume, axis of rotation, etc. There are two common ways in obtaining the moment of inertia. It is through the (1) application of Newtons Second Law and (2) the use of integration with respect to change in mass. The moment of inertia of a ring and a disk of the same mass are diverse and comparable. The ring has greater I compared to a disk. The principle behind this is the difference in the amount of mass present at a distinct volume or simply density. The moment of inertia of a disk is different for different orientation of rotation even they have the same volume and mass. An object rotated at its center enables it to maximize the distribution of mass leading it to have a greater I. On the other hand, lesser distribution of mass will occur if it is rotated at its diameter. For the case of a disk, the I is reduced into half. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The ideas of this paper cannot be done in its present form without first, my group mates who let me to be with them in performing the experiment. Without them, I cant do this work alone. I also want to thank our professor for sharing us his knowledge about this topic for us to have an understanding about the experiment and to the lab assistant that allow us borrow the apparatuses and for orienting us for proper care of those.

with Modern Physics, 12th Edition, 2009

[2]Williams, J., Metcalfe H., Modern Physics, 1976 [3]Padua, A., Crisostomo, R., Practical and

Explorational Physics, 2004

[4]hyperphysics.phy-str.gsu.edu/ hbase/mi.html [5]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Moment_of_inertia [6]www.wisegeek.com/what-is-moment-ofinertia.html