Chapter 6

Systems of Particle and Rotational Motion

Topics to be covered
1. Vector product (from NCERT)
2. CENTRE OF MASS
3. MOTION OF CENTRE OF MASS
4. LINEAR MOMENTUM OF A SYSTEM OF PARTICLES
5. ANGULAR VELOCITY AND ITS RELATION WITH LINEAR VELOCITY
6. TORQUE / MOMENT OF FORCE
7. Equilibrium of rigid body
8. Centre of Gravity
9. Moment of inertia
10. COUPLE
11. Angular momentum
Rigid Body
• Ideally a rigid body is a body with a perfectly definite and unchanging
shape.
• The distances between all pairs of particles of such a body do not
changes after application of force.
What kind of motion can a rigid body have?
1) Pure Translational motion
• block sliding down an inclined plane without any
sidewise movement. The block is taken as a rigid
body.
• Its motion down the plane is such that all the
particles of the body are moving together, i.e.
they have the same velocity at any instant of
time.
• The rigid body here is in pure translational motion
(Fig. 6.1).
• In pure translational motion at any instant of
time, all particles of the body have the same
velocity.
2)Pure rotational motion
• In rotation of a rigid body about a fixed axis,
every particle of the body moves in a circle,
which lies in a plane perpendicular to the
axis and has its center on the axis
3) Translation and Rotational motion
• Consider now the rolling motion of a solid metallic or wooden
cylinder down the same inclined plane
• all its particles are not moving with the same velocity at any instant.
The body, therefore, is not in pure translational motion.
• The rolling motion of a cylinder down an inclined plane is a
combination of rotation about a fixed axis and translation.
Centre of mass
• Newton's laws of motion are applicable to point objects.
• The introduction of the concept of centre of mass enables us to apply
them equally well to the motion of finite or extended objects.
• The centre of mass of a body is a point where the whole mass of the
body is supposed to be concentrated for describing its translatory
motion.
• The centre of mass of a system of particles is that single point which
moves in the same way in which a single particle having the total
mass of the system and acted upon by the same external force would
move.
CM lying on line of action of force Translational motion

Rotational motion
CM NOT lying on line of action of force
Centre of mass of two particle system
• The centre of mass of the system is
that point C which is at a distance X
from O, where X is given by
Coordinates of centre of mass (X, Y)

Position vector of centre of mass

Motion Of CM
From the definition of CM
LHS motion of CM RHS motion of each
particle of body
𝑉𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝑀
𝑚1 𝑟1 + 𝑚2 𝑟2 + 𝑚3 𝑟3 + ⋯ … …
𝑉 =
𝑀
σ 𝑚𝑖 𝑟𝑖
𝑉 =
𝑀
Thus, the total mass of a system of particles times the
acceleration of its centre of mass is the vector sum of all the
forces acting on the system of particles.
The centre of mass of a system of particles moves as if all the
mass of the system was concentrated at the centre of mass
and all the external forces were applied at that point
 Linear Momentum of System of particle
Let us consider a system of n particles with
masses m1 , m2 ,...mn respectively and
velocities V1 V2 , ,....... Vn respectively. The
particles may be interacting and have
external forces acting on them.
The linear momentum of the first particle is
P1 = m1 v1 ,
similarly
P2 = m2 v2
P3 = m3 v3
For the system of n particles, the linear momentum of the system is
defined to be the vector sum of all individual particles of the system

Comparing this with Eq. (6.8)

The total momentum of a system of particles is equal to the

product of the total mass of the system and the velocity of its
centre of mass.
This is the statement of Newton’s second law of motion
extended to a system of particles
Suppose, the sum of external forces acting on a system of
particles is zero

When total external force acting on a system of particles is zero,

the total linear momentum of the system is constant i.e. linear
momentum is conserved.
This also means that when the total external force on the system
is zero the velocity of the centre of mass remains constant.
Angular velocity
• Circular motion
• Angular displacement
• We observe that at any given instant
the relation v r = ω applies to all
particles of the rigid body.
• Thus for a particle at a perpendicular
distance r i from the fixed axis, the
linear velocity at a given instant vi is
given by vi r i = ω
• i runs from 1 to n, where n is the
total number of particles of the body.
• Note that we use the same angular
velocity ω for all the particles. We
therefore, refer to ω as the angular
velocity of the whole body.
Angular velocity and linear velocity
We have derived the relation between linear velocity V and angular
velocity Ꞷ
V=ꞶXr
𝑣Ԧ = Ꞷ × 𝑟Ԧ
Angular acceleration
• We define angular acceleration α as the time rate of change of
angular velocity.
 TORQUE / MOMENT OF FORCE
The turning effect of force is called moment of force or torque.
It depends on two factors:
(i) The magnitude of the force (F)
(ii) The perpendicular distance of the line of action of the force from
the axis of rotation(lever arm or moment arm) (d)
Thus, greater the magnitude of the force, or greater the perpendicular
distance between the line of action of the force and the axis of
rotation, the greater is the moment of force, or greater is the turning
effect.
Moment of force / Torque τ
Torque is measured as the
product of the magnitude of
the force and the
perpendicular distance
between the line of action of
the force and the axis of
rotation.
𝛕 = 𝐫Ԧ × 𝐅Ԧ
Linear momentum Angular momentum
Angular momentum.
• In linear motion, the linear momentum of a body gives a measure of its
translatory motion.
• Analogous to it
• In rotational motion, the angular momentum gives a measure of the
turning motion of the body.
Angular momentum
• Moment of linear momentum
• The angular momentum of a particle rotating about an axis is defined as
the moment of the linear momentum of the particle about that axis.
• It is measured as the product of linear momentum and the perpendicular
distance of its line of action from the axis of rotation.
Angular momentum = 𝐿𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑢𝑚 ×
𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑟 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒
𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝐿 =𝑝×𝑟 ⊥
𝐿 = 𝑝 × 𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃
𝐿 = 𝑟Ԧ × 𝑝Ԧ
Conservation of angular momentum
 Centre of Gravity
• Take an irregular shaped cardboard having
mass M and a narrow tipped object like a
pencil. You can locate by trial and error a
point G on the cardboard where it can be
balanced on the tip of the pencil.
• This point of balance is the centre of
gravity (CG) of the cardboard.
• The CG of the cardboard is so located that
the total torque on it due to the forces m1
g, m2 g …. etc.
• For symmetric shape / body
C.G is the geometric centre.
• For Asymmetric /irregular
shape / body C .G. can be
determine by given method.
EQUILIBRIUM OF A RIGID BODY
• Translational equilibrium
• The total force i.e. the vector sum of the forces, on the rigid body is
zero

• If the total force on the body is zero, then the total linear momentum
of the body does not change with time gives the condition for the
translational equilibrium of the body.
EQUILIBRIUM OF A RIGID BODY
Rotational equilibrium
• The total torque, i.e. the vector sum of the torques on the rigid body
is zero,

• If the total torque on the rigid body is zero, the total angular
momentum of the body does not change with time. Eq. (6.30 b) gives
the condition for the rotational equilibrium of the body.
Moment of inertia
• A body rotating a body about a given axis tends to maintain its state
of uniform rotation, unless an external torque is applied on it to
change that state.
• This property of a body by virtue of which it opposes the torque
tending to change its state of rest or of uniform rotation about an axis
is called rotational inertia or moment of inertia.
Moment of inertia (I)
The moment of inertia of a rigid body about a fixed axis is defined as
the sum of the products of the masses of the particles of the body and
the squares of their respective distances from the axis of rotation
 Moment of inertia (I) of rigid body
• Consider a rigid body rotating with
uniform angular velocity ω about a vertical
axis through O,
• Suppose the body consists of n particles of
masses m1, m2, m3,…., mn, situated at
distances r1, r2,r 3,……,rn respectively from
the axis of rotation.
• The moment of inertia of the body about
the axis OZ is given by
Kinetic energy in Rotational motion
• As the mass of a body resists a change in its state of linear motion, it
is a measure of its inertia in linear motion. Similarly, as the moment
of inertia about a given axis of rotation resists a change in its
rotational motion, it can be regarded as a measure of rotational
inertia of the body;
• It is a measure of the way in which different parts of the body are
distributed at different distances from the axis.
• Unlike the mass of a body, the moment of inertia is not a fixed
quantity but depends on distribution of mass about the axis of
rotation, and the orientation and position of the axis of rotation with
respect to the body as a whole. As a measure of the way in which the
mass of a rotating rigid body is distributed with respect to the axis of
rotation, we can define a new parameter, the radius of gyration.
The radius of gyration is the distance of a point where whole mass
of body is concentrated from an axis ,whose moment of inertia is
equal to the moment of inertia of the entire body
𝐼 = 𝑀 𝑘2
KINEMATICS OF ROTATIONAL MOTION
ABOUT A FIXED AXIS
Work done by torque
Relation between Torque and moment of
inertia
• The work done by external torques is therefore, not dissipated and
used to increase the kinetic energy of the body.
• Rate of doing work = rate of increase in K.E.
• The rate of increase of kinetic energy is

•
conservation of angular momentum
Conservation of angular momentum
We are now in a position to revisit the principle of conservation of
angular momentum in the context of moment of inertia and angular
velocity
If the external torque is zero, L = Iω = constant