MOMENT OF INERTIA

The moment of inertia of a rigid body is a measure of how much the mass
of body is spread out. It is a measure of the rigid body's ability to resist
change in rotational motion.

Calculation: The moment of inertia of a rigid body, B, about an axis is

2
where: dm is an element of mass of the body,
r dm
r is the perpendicular distance from the axis to
any arbitrary mass element of the body (think of the
Pythagorean Theorem to see r^2 in the integrand),
and the integral is over the mass of the whole body.
See Figure 1

mi
r
z
y
x
y
x

Figure 1: Position of an element of mass of a rigid body.

Example: Find the moment of inertia of the box in Figure 2 with respect to
the x axis.

y
x
Figure 2: Box (like the beam in our catapault)

Dimensions of box: a in the x direction (i.e. -a/2 < x < a/2)

b in the y direction (i.e. -b/2 < y < b/2)
c in the z direction (i.e. -c/2 < z < c/2)
Origin of coordinate system placed at center of box, which will be the
center of gravity of the box, assuming constant density.

Ix =
2 2
r dm = r dV density*volume = mass so dm = dV

set up triple integral in

= 2
r dx dy dz Cartesian coordinates to do
volume calculation
Box

c b a
2 2 2
=
( 2 2
)
y + z dx dy dz
c b a

2 2 2

Limits of integration defined by where the box "lives" in the 3D

coordinate system. Recall that we are finding the moment of inertia with
respect to the x-axis, and we need to define r, the distance between any
point in the box and the x-axis. Referring to Figure 1, above, we know
that r^2=y^2+z^2, by the Pythagorean Theorem.

c b
2 2

(
2 2
y +z x ) a
dy dz Integrating
= 2
first with

a respect to x
2
c b

2 2
 c b
2 2

=
2 2
(
a y + z dy dz )
c b

2 2

c
2

1 3 2
a y + yz
b
dz Integrating
3 2
now with
=
b respect to y
2
c

2

c
2
b2 2
= ab + z dz
12
c
2

2
= ab b z + 1 z3 c
Integrating
12 3 2
finally with
c respect to z
2

= abc b2 + c2
12
( )

(
= m b2 + c2
12
) since mass = density*volume