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CE Class Notes

This document discusses the dynamics of rigid bodies, focusing on angular momentum and its conservation. It explains that a rigid body requires six parameters to describe its motion and that the dynamics are governed by angular momentum, which is dependent on external torque. The document concludes with key points about the relationship between angular momentum and the forces acting on a system of particles.

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30 views7 pages

CE Class Notes

This document discusses the dynamics of rigid bodies, focusing on angular momentum and its conservation. It explains that a rigid body requires six parameters to describe its motion and that the dynamics are governed by angular momentum, which is dependent on external torque. The document concludes with key points about the relationship between angular momentum and the forces acting on a system of particles.

Uploaded by

abdullahsalik808
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Rotational dynamics I: Angular momentum

So far we have applied Newton's laws to point particles and the CM motion for a
collection of particles. The motion of the CM is described by the equation

Let us see what else could happen to a body made up of a collection of particles where
forces are applied at each point (figure 1). The particles are connected with flexible
attachments shown as lines.

In the figure above, although the CM moves with , the body itself could
deform and change its orientation. Thus the distances between the particles and the
angles between lines joining them would change. We are going to assume that a body
only changes its orientation but does not deform. This is achieved by keeping the
distance between any two particles of the body unchanged. Such a body is known as
a rigid body. Thus in the example above, if we connect all the particles with each other
by rods of fixed length, the body will become rigid. This is shown in figure 2.
The most general motion of a rigid body is its translation plus its change of orientation or
rotation. we can translate any point in the body and then rotate the body about that
point. Irrespective of which point we choose, the sense and the angle of rotation is
always the same. Usually this point is taken to be the CM. This general motion is shown
below in figure 3, giving two possible ways of translating and rotating the body.

You see that in figure 3 the rigid body has translated and also rotated. On the other
hand, if we keep one of the points on the body fixed the only thing the body can do is
rotation (see figure 4). Thus with a point fixed, the only possible motion of a rigid body
is a rotation.
A question that arises now is how many variables do we need to specify the general
motion of a rigid body. It requires three variables - x, y and z coordinates of the point
that is translated - to describe the translation, and three more - angle of rotation about
each axis - to represent the rotation. You can see that in general a rigid body would
require six variables to describe its motion. However, if one of its points is fixed, three
variables are sufficient to specify its rotation. So we conclude a rigid body needs six
parameters to describe its motion.

Dynamics of Rigid body: The dynamics of a rigid body is best described by


considering its angular momentum. For a single particle moving with linear
momentum at a distance from the origin the angular momentum is
defined as

If a particle of mass m is moving in a plane then using the polar coordinates for it,

it is easily shown that its angular momentum is . Let us now find out
what is the rate of change of angular moment? It is calculated below.

= ⃗ ⃗ ⃗ ⃗
= ⃗ ⃗ (⃗ ⃗ =0)

With , where is the force on the particle, the


equation above is simplified to
Thus rate of change of angular momentum is equal to the torque applied on the
body. From the equation above, the law of conservation of angular
momentum follows immediately: If the applied torque then
⃗
⃗

the angular momentum does not change, i.e. it is a constant. The equation

is the angular momentum equivalent of Newton 's IInd law.

Angular Momentum of a collection of particles: If there are many particles then the
total angular momentum about a point O is the sum of individual angular momenta of
each particle about O. Thus

As for the angular momentum of a single particle, the angular momentum of a many-
particle system is also origin-dependent.
The total angular momentum of a collection of particles is equal to the angular
momentum of the CM plus the angular momentum of particles about the CM. Let us
now prove it. To do so express the position vector and the velocity of a particle as

where refer to the position and velocity of the CM and the


th
position and velocity of i particle with respect to the CM. Now the total angular
momentum can be writes as
However, by definition of the CM, . Therefore the second
and the last term in the expression above do not contribute. The remaining terms are
written as

where M is the total mass of the system.

The relationship also tells us that if the total momentum of a system


of particles is zero, its angular momentum will be independent of the origin. I leave the
simple proof for you to work out.

Dynamic of a rigid body; and conservation of angular momentum: Let us now

look at in the case of a collection of particles which are interacting with each other
and are also being acted upon by external forces.

∑ ( )

( )

∑
But ( s the total force, i.e. the sum of external and internal forces on the
particle). This gives

Before simplifying this equation in terms of the external torque, let us see where does
this equation lead us for a two particle system shown in figure 10?

The two particles 1 and 2 shown in figure 10 are external forces ,

respectively. They also interact with each other with particle 2 applying a force on

particle 1 and particle 1 applying a force on particle 2. We assume the forces to be

following Newton 'sIIIrd law so that . Now the rate of change for this system
can be written as
⃗
⃗⃗⃗ ⃗⃗⃗

⃗⃗⃗ ⃗⃗⃗
⃗⃗⃗ ⃗⃗⃗
Thus the rate of change of angular momentum is equal to only the external torque

if or ,i.e. the force between the particles is along the line


joining them. At this point I would like you to recall that in the case of linear momentum,
the rate of change on linear momentum equals the total external force,

i.e. . For angular momentum to satisfy , the

additional condition of is also needed. Fortunately for most of the


mechanical applications this is true. Let us now generalize this to the case of a many-
particle system. For such a system

Thus if then . Thus is the law of conservation of total


angular momentum. In the next lecture we will do a few example of its application.

We now conclude this lecture by listing the following points that we have learnt:
1. A rigid body needs six parameters to describe its general motion; three for
translation and three for rotation,
2. Dynamics of rigid body is governed by its angular momentum,
3. The angular momentum satisfies the equation

under the condition that the internal forces satisfy Newton 's III rd law and an additional

condition that

4.

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