Abstract

Moment of inertia is defined as the

measure of an objects resistance to
changes to its rotation. Also defined as the
capacity of a cross section to resist bending.
The purpose of this experiment is to
differentiate the moment of inertia of a
disk and a ring in two different approaches,
one of which is to rotate at the center and
the other is to rotate along its diameter.

I. Introduction
Rotational motions involve more
than linear motions. Inertia gives us an
idea of how hard or easy the object is
accelerated. The more inertia it has, the
harder it is accelerated and decelerated. In
the linear motion, inertia corresponds to
its mass as a point object. In practice, an
object has an extended shape as a three
dimensional sense. Especially, when the
object rotates, the shape plays a more
important role and it needs more
description for the inertia besides its mass.

II. Theory
When an object at rest is set into
rotation about some axis, it has a
tendency to keep rotating at some angular
speed measured in radians/sec. This
tendency is called the rotational inertia
and is characterized by a physical quantity
called the moment of inertia, I, of the
object. Moment of inertia is the rotational
counterpart of inertial mass in linear
motion. Hence the kinetic energy of a
rotating object is:

KE = I
2
(1)

In the experiment we set the
object rotating by attaching it to a
hanging weight and allowing the weight
to fall. Before dropping the weight, the
energy is all potential energy, that of the
hanging weight. At the instant the weight
hits the floor the energy is all kinetic
energy, both in the rotating body and in
the falling object. Ignoring friction and
the rotational kinetic energy of the pulley
(which is reasonable to do since both the
object and pulley rotate with little friction
and the pulleys moment of inertia is
extremely small compared to that of the
object), we can apply the Law of
Conservation of Energy:

mgh = mv
f
2
+ I
f
2
. (2)

The velocity (v) of the hanging
weight is related to the angular velocity
) of the rotating object by v r where r
is the radius of the drum on the object.
The final velocity is related to the average
velocity, and the average velocity can be
found from the distance dropped (h) and
the time (t) for the drop: v
avg
= (v
f
+ v
i
) /
2 , and v
avg
= h / t, so that (with v
i
= 0, i.e.,
starting from rest) v
f
= 2h / t. We can now
substitute for both v
f

f
in Eq. (2) and
solve for I in terms of the measurable
quantities m, g, h, t

and r :

I = mr
2
[ (gt
2
/ 2h) - 1 ] (3)
The above equation will allow us to
find the moment of inertia experimentally
for any object. We will compare our
results for a uniform, solid disk and a
uniform ring with those derived from
theory. Using the definition of moment of
inertia, I = r
2
dm , one can show that
theory predicts

I
disk
= MR
2
(4)
I
ring
= M(R
IN
2
+ R
OUT
2
) (5)

where M is the mass of the disk or ring, R
is the radius of the disk, R
IN
is the inner
radius of the disk, and R
OUT
is the outer
radius of the disk. (Note: the + sign is
correct in Eq. (5)!)

III. Methodology

A. Setup











B. Materials
The materials used for the
experiment are as follows:
1 set rotating platform
1 pc disk
1 pc ring
1 pc photogate
1 pc smart timer
1 pc smart pulley
1 set weights
1 pc mass hanger
1 pc vernier caliper

C. Procedure
First and foremost, before
starting the experiment it would be
needed to set-up first the equipment to be
used so make the experiment to be
smooth. Attach the mounting rod to the
smart pulley and photogate head. Connect
the mass hanger to a thread and loop it
around the cylinder along the vertical
shaft. Be cautious and place the disk on
the center vertical shaft and connect the
smart timer to the photogates then plug it
to a power source which is 220V.

Now we move on to the first part,
The determination of the moment of
inertia of a disk and ring. The ring was
placed on the disk then using a vernier
caliper, measure the diameter of the shaft
to which the thread is wound. Dividing the
diameter by 2, we get its radius. It is said
that in order to overcome kinetic friction a
mass is added on the pan and let it drop
with a constant speed. Furthermore, the
mass should not be more than 40 grams.
Add more mass and record its acceleration
by setting the smart timer to
ACCEL,LINEAR PULLEY mode. Solve for
the experimental value of the moment of
inertia of the ring and the disk using
I=[m(g-a)r^2]/a . Repeat this process by
increasing the mass added two more
times and then compute for the percent
difference.

Removing the ring from the setup, and
doing the exact same procedure as the
earlier. We should be able to determine
the moment of inertia of a disk rotated
about the center. We measured the
moment of inertia of ring by getting the
difference between the moment of inertia
of the disk and the ring combined and
moment of inertia of disk instead of
repeating what had been done on the
previous part.

For the last part of the experiment
which is the determination of the moment
of inertia of a disk rotated about its
diameter. To start, remove the disk from
the vertical shaft and insert the D-shaped
hole on the disk to the shaft. Now, same
procedures must be done throughout just
a different rotating body.





IV. References

Principles of Physics 9
th
edition by
Halliday, Resnick, Jearl Walker

Laboratory Manual

http://hyperphysics.phy-
astr.gsu.edu/hbase/mi.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_of_i
nertia