The photo shows a high-wire walker striding confidently along a steel cable stretched nearly half a kilometer above the bottom of a gorge in the Grand Canyon. If he tips slightly to the side, a gravitational torque will start to rotate his body even farther—which is clearly not good. To help him balance, he carries a long, heavy pole. This increases the moment of inertia, which results in a smaller angular acceleration, giving him more time to recover his balance.Model the man’s body as a 1.8-m-long, 88 kg, uniform rod. The pole is 9.1 m long, with a mass of 20 kg. What is the moment of inertia of his body? Of the pole?
Angular Momentum
The momentum of an object is given by multiplying its mass and velocity. Momentum is a property of any object that moves with mass. The only difference between angular momentum and linear momentum is that angular momentum deals with moving or spinning objects. A moving particle's linear momentum can be thought of as a measure of its linear motion. The force is proportional to the rate of change of linear momentum. Angular momentum is always directly proportional to mass. In rotational motion, the concept of angular momentum is often used. Since it is a conserved quantity—the total angular momentum of a closed system remains constant—it is a significant quantity in physics. To understand the concept of angular momentum first we need to understand a rigid body and its movement, a position vector that is used to specify the position of particles in space. A rigid body possesses motion it may be linear or rotational. Rotational motion plays important role in angular momentum.
Moment of a Force
The idea of moments is an important concept in physics. It arises from the fact that distance often plays an important part in the interaction of, or in determining the impact of forces on bodies. Moments are often described by their order [first, second, or higher order] based on the power to which the distance has to be raised to understand the phenomenon. Of particular note are the second-order moment of mass (Moment of Inertia) and moments of force.
The photo shows a high-wire walker striding confidently along a steel cable stretched nearly half a kilometer above the bottom of a gorge in the Grand Canyon. If he tips slightly to the side, a gravitational torque will start to rotate his body even farther—which is clearly not good. To help him balance, he carries a long, heavy pole. This increases the moment of inertia, which results in a smaller
Model the man’s body as a 1.8-m-long, 88 kg, uniform rod. The pole is 9.1 m long, with a mass of 20 kg. What is the moment of inertia of his body? Of the pole?
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