Experiment 203: Moment of Inertia

JAVEN, PAUL ADRIAN B.

Department of Physics
School of Civil Engineering and Geological Engineering
Mapua Institute of Technology
PHY11L A1 Group 4
pjaven@gmail.com

Abstract
Inertia is rotational analog of mass. We are all familiar with Newtons law. Engineers make use of
that a lot, it related how much force have to be applied to something to make it move. The heavier
it is, the greater the force must be applied. That is why the mass m is in F = ma. Inertia is the
same, except it tells you how much torque at a lever you need to apply to make something spin. It
depends on how heavy something is and how wide something is. One might know this from
experience, it is very easy to pick up a hammer by the heavy end than it is to pick it up from the
lighter end. This is because at the lighter end the hammer has more moment of inertia, because
there is more mass further away.
Introduction
Moment of inertia is defined with respect to a specific rotation axis. The moment of inertia of a
point mass with respect to an axis is defined as the product of the mass times the distance from
the axis squared. The moment of inertia of any extended object is built up from that basic
definition. The general form of the moment of inertia involves an integral.
For a point of mass, the moment of inertia is just the mass times the radius from the axis squared.
I = mr2 or I = kmr2 where k is a proportionality constant
For a collection of masses, the moment of inertia is just the sum for the masses.

I= mi r i=m1 r 1+ m2 r 2 +m3 r 3 +
i

Continuous mass distributions require an infinite sum of all the point mass moments which make
up the whole. This is accomplished by an integration over all the mass
M

I= r 2 dM
0

Methodology
A. Setting up the equipment
1. Attach the mounting rod to the smart pulley and photohead gate. Connect a mass
hanger to a thread (thread must pass over the smart pulley) and loop it around the
cylinder along the vertical shaft as shown below.
 2. Securely place the disk on the center vertical shaft.
3. Connect the smart timer to the photohead gate and plug it to 220V source.
B. Determination of Moment of Inertia of Disk and Ring
1. Place the disk on the ring as shown in figure below.

2. Use vernier caliper to measure the

diameter of the shaft to which the thread is wound. Compute its radius.
3. To overcome 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.
4. For the first trial, add more mass and record its acceleration. The smart timer must be
set to ACCEL, LINEAR PULLEY.
5. Solve for the experimental moment of inertia of the disk and ring using. The friction
mass is not included in the computation of the moment of inertia.
6. Compute for the percent difference
C. Determination of Moment of Inertia of Disk rotated about the center.
1. Remove the ring from the disk and repeat steps 3 to 7 of procedure B. Fill out table 2.
 D. Determination of Moment of Inertia of Ring
1. 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.

IRING = ITOTAL(EXPTL) IDISK(EXPTL)

2. Fill out table 3.
E. Determination of Moment of Inertia of Disk rotated about its diameter.
1. Remove the disk from the vertical shaft. Insert the D-shaped hole on the disk to the
shaft.
2. Repeat steps 3 to 7 of procedure B and fill out table 4.

Results and Discussion

We determined the mass of inertia of a ring and disk by using an rotating platform, smart timer,
super pulley, hanging mass, ring, and a set of hanging weights with their pan. We used the smart
timer to record the downward acceleraion of the hanging weight as the platform spins at varying
angular acceleration.
The setup goes as follows. The disk was placed onto a rotating platform and the rod and our
photogate was attached were built in the platform in such a way that it can record radial
acceleration. Hanging mass were connected by a pan and thread and is looped along the shaft. Make
sure that the platform is properly leveled. If not, use the adjusting screws so that we can minimize
erroneous results in the long run.
On this experiment, disk has a moment of inertia greater than the ring because the disks radius is
larger than the rings radius even though they are nearly identical in mass. For this reason, the
values obtained, shows that the moment of inertia of the disk is bigger. The disk has a continuous
distribution of mass while the ring does not show because it is a hollow rigid body.
The moment of inertia of the ring will be greater than that of the disk even though their masses are
almost the same because the ring has its weight far from the axis of rotation. But the ring cannot
rotate alone in its center because it is a hollow body, at least, in this experiment. Also, the disks
MOI is greater when it is rotated about the center rather than rotating it about its diameter because
the distribution of mass is further from the axis of rotation. Hence, it is greater when the inertia is
rotated about the center.

Answers to Guide Questions

1. Suppose the disk and the ring are of the same mass and radius. Which one has the greater
moment of inertia? Explain why the moment of inertia of one is greater than the other.

The moment of inertia is greater for the ring than for the disk though a ring and a disk
have equal mass and radius, the mass of the ring is distributed uniformly at a distance
 which the same to the radius of the ring. The moment of inertia for the disk is less because
most of the mass lies closer to the axis of rotation.

2. Use equation 3 to derive the moment of inertia of a solid rod of mass M and length L if its
axis is perpendicular to the rod and through its center.

General equation:

I= r 2 dm

Let dm be the mass of infinitesimal length dr:

M
dm = dr
L

Let the limits of integration be from L/2 to L/2 because it is referred to rods center.

r
M
( 2 )dr
I= L
L/ 2

L/2

=
3L 8[
M L3 L3

8 ] | L/2 to L/2

1 2
I= ML
12

3. In the figure below, the block on the inclined plane is moving up with a constant
acceleration of 2.00m/s2. Determine T1 and T2 and find the moment of inertia of the pulley.
(note: T1 and T2 are tensions on the two segments of the cord.)
 T1 = m1a = (10kg) (2m/s2)
Tnet = I
T1 = 20N Tr = I
T
( 2T 1)
I= r2 = 4.25kgm2


T2 = m2g - m2a
T2 = (20kg)(9.8m/s2) (20kg)(2m/s2)
T2 = 156N

Graph/s

From Table 2: MOI (Actual Values) of Disk vs RDISK , R Graph

(R/2, R, 2R)
350000 331304
300000
250000
200000
150000
100000 82826
50000
20706
0
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24

MOI increases as the disks radius increases. Directly proportional relationship.

Conclusion
First part of the experiment had shown that as the mass influencing movement increases, the
acceleration produces a greater moment of inertia. Therefore, it modifies the resistance to rotational
motion. It also explains when we use a constant mass value but still obtain a different moment of
inertia, mainly because of external forces.
Second part shows that greater mass and acceleration gives off higher moments of inertia.
Last part was done by placing the disk along the z-direction. The further the distribution of mass,
the greater the moment of inertia it has due to the concentration of the mass to the far side of the
lever arm.
The cause of changes on the rotational motion of a rigid body is due to the net torque. The moment
of inertia is connected to radial acceleration from the equation of torque where it is the moment of
inertia multiplied to the radial acceleration.

Recommendations
Possible sources of error on this experiment could be the friction mass exceeding 40g, uneven
leveling of the rotating platform resulting to unwanted interference of gravity, pulling the string
instead of letting it fall by its hanging mass. Also make sure to plug the correct units in computing
the given values. This experiment uses a lot of trial and error so pick the best hanging masses so
that the EV will be close to the AV, as the instructor sets a 5% difference limit.

References
Reference from a book:
[1] Halliday, D., Resnick, R., & Walker, J. (2014). Principles of Physics 10 th ed. Hoboken, NJ:
Wiley.
Reference from a website:
[2] Information from http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/mi2.html
[3] Information from https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/torque-angular-
momentum/torque-tutorial/a/rotational-inertia
[5] Information from
http://www.engineersedge.com/mechanics_machines/mass_moment_of_inertia_equations_13091.ht
m
[6] Information from https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-real-life-use-of-moment-of-inertia

Appendix
Table 1: Determination of Moment of Inertia of Disk and Ring (rotated about the center)
MDISK = 1474.3g ITOTAL = IDISK + IRING (Actual Value)
MRING = 1429.8g = 1/2 (MDISK)RDISK2 +1/2 (MRING)(R12+R22)
RDISK = 10.6cm = 132, 495.6566gcm2
Friction mass = 5g
2
m(ga)r
MPAN = 5g IAVE = a (Experimental Value)
3
R1 = 5.37cm IAVE = 134, 699.1785gcm2
R2 = 6.375cm
 | AV EV |
=1.649
Radius, r = 1.005cm %DIFF = AV + EV
2

Table 2: Determination of Moment of Inertia of Disk (rotated about the center)

MDISK = 1474.3g IDISK = 1/2 (MDISK)RDISK2 (Actual Value)
RDISK = 10.6cm = 82, 826.174gcm2
Friction mass = 5g
2
m(ga)r
MPAN = 5g IAVE = a (Experimental Value)
3
Radius, r = 1.005cm IAVE = 81, 085.36813gcm2

| AV EV |
=2.12
%DIFF = AV + EV
2
Table 3: Determination of Moment of Inertia of Ring (rotated about the center)
MRING = 1429.8g IRING = 1/2 (MRING)(R12+R22) (Actual Value)
R1 = 5.37cm = 49, 669.48262gcm2
R2 = 6.375cm
EV of Moment of Inertia (by difference),
IRING = ITOTAL(EXPTL) IDISK(EXPTL)
IRING = 51, 410.28847gcm2

| AV EV |
=3.44
%DIFF = AV + EV
2

Table 4: Determination of Moment of Inertia of Disk (rotated about the diameter)

MDISK = 1474.3g IDISK = 1/4 (MDISK)RDISK2 (Actual Value)
RDISK = 10.6cm IDISK = 41, 413.087gcm2
Friction mass = 5g
2
m(ga)r
Radius, r = 1.005cm IAVE = a (Experimental Value)
3
IAVE = 43, 279.52125gcm2

| AV EV |
=4.407
%DIFF = AV + EV
2