Toilet Paper Tie

Cami Kai, Katie Peters, Coco Paule

Rotational Inertia
- Property of any object which can be rotated
- Scalar value; how difficult it is to change the rotational velocity of the object around a given
rotational axis.
- Depends on the mass of an object and the distribution of that mass relative to the axis of
rotation.
- When a mass moves further away from the axis of rotation, it becomes more difficult to
change the rotational velocity of the system
- Different equation for different shapes. The common equation is but for a cylinder
with an inner and outer radius, the moment of inertia equation is
Unrolling vs. Dropping Toilet Paper
Unrolling:
Dropping:
1. A toilet paper unrolling is subject to three
1. A toilet paper dropping is subject to the
forces: weight, centripetal forces, and
acceleration of free fall on the surface of
torque.
the earth (9.8 meters per second per
2. Centripetal force is the force directed
second).
inward that keeps the body in circular
2. A toilet paper in free fall will follow
motion. Torque is the tendency of a force
universal kinematics of a body in free fall .
applied on an object to cause rotation of
SUVAT equations can be applied to
the object.
motion of the toilet paper.
3. The force that goes into keeping the object
3. The only force acting on the toilet paper is
in rotation comes from the weight of the
its weight.
toilet paper. This changes the weight of
the object, which then changes the
acceleration of the roll since mass is
constant.
Controlled Variables
Radius of the entire roll

Inner radius of the roll

Mass of the toilet papers

Type of paper used

Drop/unroll directly downward

Independent and Dependent Variables
Independent: Height at which toilet paper is dropped

Dependent: Time taken for each roll to reach the ground

 Start with SUVAT:
H = height for dropping roll
Dropping Unrolling
h = height for unrolling roll
S H S h
g = gravitational acc. = 9.81
U 0 U 0
a = downward acceleration
V V
determined by rotational
motion
A g A a

T T

Determine the
relationship
between the
unrolling and
dropping height.
 Given either the unrolling
or dropping height
g=9.81ms-2

Find linear acceleration a to determine the other height.

 Parallel Axis Theorem
If the object is rotating at an axis parallel to
the axis of rotation but not at the center of
mass,

Icm = moment of inertia at center of mass

Iparallel axis = moment of inertia at parallel
axis
M = mass
d = distance between axis at center of
mass and axis

Therefore, we must add Md2 to the original

moment of inertia
Simplify:

simplifying
Note the difference between
a (linear acc.) and (rotational acc.)
Example: If the unrolling height is 1m

h (unrolling) = 1 m

H (dropping) = ?

R = 6.35 cm = 0.0635 m

r = 2.23 cm = 0.0223 m

Therefore, we must drop the other roll from 1.561 m.

h (unrolling) = 1 m

H (dropping) = 1.561 m