Chapter 5

Rotational motion
A rigid body is dened as a body (or collection of particles) where all mass points stay at
the same relative distances at all times. This can be a continuous body, or a collection
of discrete particles: the same equations of motion hold for both cases. A rigid body
will move as a single entity, but it can change its orientation, and this motion can be
highly nontrivial as we shall see.
The notion of a rigid body is an idealisation, since no real completely rigid bodies exist in
the real world. Firstly, real bodies consist of atoms and molecules which always undergo
vibrations (and electrons, as quantum particles, are never at rest). These complications
can be ignored for macroscopic bodies. Secondly, it is always possible to deform an
actual body, and this can happen even in the absence of external forces if for example
the internal forces keeping the constituents apart are not strong enough to balance the
attractive forces or vice-versa!
Still, the idealised description is reasonable for many macroscopic solids, and provide a
good description of for example tops, gyroscopes, bicycle wheels, falling sandwiches and
tumbling cats.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this section, you should be able to
identify appropriate degrees of freedom and coordinates for a rigid body;
describe rotations using rotation matrices, and explain the general properties of
rotation matrices;
dene the inertia tensor and explain the relation between the inertia tensor, rota-
tional kinetic energy and angular momentum;
calculate the inertia tensor for simple objects;
explain what is meant by principal axes of inertia and how they may be found;
56
use the equations of motion for rotating bodies (Euler equations) to analyse the
motion of rotating systems.
5.1 How many degrees of freedom do we have?
Let us imagine a rigid body consisting of N discrete particles. Altogether this gives us
3N coordinates. The requirement that the body is rigid, ie all the internal distances
are xed, imposes constraints on these coordinates. We denote the distance between
particles i and j by r
ij
. We can work out how many constraints and hence degrees of
freedom we have:
N = 2 Here we have a single constraint r
12
= r, and hence we have a total of 3 2 1 = 5
degrees of freedom.
N = 3 We now have 3 internal distances to be xed: r
12
, r
13
and r
23
, giving 3 constraints
and 3N 3 = 6 degrees of freedom.
N = 4 Here there are 6 internal distances to be xed, so we have 3 4 6 = 6 degrees of
freedom. Strictly speaking, there are 2 dierent congurations which both satisfy
these 6 constraints, corresponding to rigid bodies that are mirror images of each
other. This ambiguity does not correspond to any physical degree of freedom,
however.
N = 5 Now it appears there would be 10 constraints, corresponding to the 10 pairs of
particles we have. However, if you construct a 5-particle body from a 4-particle
one, you will see that once the fth particle has been positioned relative to 3 of
the others, the position relative to the fourth one is also given. (You may try this
for yourself!) We therefore only have 9 constraints, and 3 5 9 = 6 degrees of
freedom.
N 6 As was the case for N = 5, we will need to specify 3 relative distances to position
the 6th particle relative to the other 5, 3 more for the 7th particle, etc. This
cancels out the 3 coordinates that each new particle comes with, so we end up
with 6 degrees of freedom in every case.
In summary, we nd that a rigid body has 6 degrees of freedom, except for N = 2, which
is a special case, and has only 5 degrees of freedom. A more careful analysis will reveal
that there are only 5 degrees of freedom whenever the rigid body is 1-dimensional (all
the constituent particles are located on a single line), and 6 otherwise.
Three of these degrees of freedom can be taken to represent the position of the body,
and it is natural to use the centre of mass coordinates of the body as corresponding gen-
eralised coordinates. The three remaining degrees of freedom represent the orientation
of the body, and it is natural to choose three angles as coordinates. We will come back
to how these angles may be chosen later on.
57
Dynamically, the 3+3 degrees of freedom correspond to two dierent kinds of motion:
the linear motion of the centre of mass, and the rotation of the body about its centre
of mass. We can now see why there are 3 such degrees of freedom: they correspond to
rotations (changes in orientation) about 3 axes going through the centre of mass. In
the case of a 1-dimensional body, there are only 2 rotational degrees of freedom, since
rotation about the line the body is located on does not correspond to any real motion.
This discussion can be summarised in Chasles theorem, which states
Any motion of a rigid body is the sum of a translation and a rotation.
From now on we will focus on how we can describe and study the rotational motion and
degrees of freedom.
5.1.1 Relative motion as rotation
Assume rst that one point in the body is xed. We can choose this point to be the
origin of our coordinate system. If we now move a point P relative to this origin, it
follows from the denition of a rigid body that although the position

r of P changes,
the distance r of P from the origin does not change, and the displacement d

r

r .
This denes a rotation of an angle d about some axis passing through the origin. Since
all the points in the body remain at a xed distance relative to the origin, they all rotate
about an axis through the origin, and since the body retains its shape, they all rotate
about the same axis.
This can be summarised in Eulers theorem:
Any movement of a rigid body with one point xed is a rotation about some
axis.
If we say that the vector d

points along the axis of rotation, and this vector forms

and angle with the position vector

r , we have
|d

r | = |

r | sin |d

| or d

r = d

r . (5.1)
The velocity of the point P is then

v =
d

r
dt
=
d

dt

r =

r . (5.2)
If in addition, the whole body moves with some linear velocity

V , the total velocity of
the point P is

v =

V +

v
rel
=

V +

r (5.3)
You have in the past studied the case where the axis of rotation, ie the direction of

is xed. But in the general case,

=

(t) can change both magnitude and direction,

and we need to describe this general situation.
58
5.2 Rotated coordinate systems and rotation matri-
ces
Before we go on to discuss the kinematics and dynamics of rotational motion, let us
look at the coordinates we can use to describe the rigid body. It is clearly convenient to
describe the shape of the body, or the relative positions of the constituent parts of the
body, using a coordinate system that is sitting in the body and moving with it. It will
also turn out to be convenient to describe the rotational motion of the body in such a
system, since it is natural to describe this as the body rotating about its own axes. We
call such a coordinate system the body coordinate system.
But to describe the motion of the body in space we need a coordinate system xed in
space, not moving with the body. We therefore need to know the relation between the
body coordinate system and this xed coordinate system.
Ignoring any linear displacements, these coordinate systems will be rotated relative to
each other. We therefore need to know how coordinates change when the coordinate
system is rotated.
Let us call the original coordinates of a point (eg in the xed coordinate system)

r = (x, y, z) and the coordinates in the rotated (eg the body) coordinate system

= (x

, y

, z

). We call the angles between the axes in the original and the rotated
coordinate systems
ij
, i = x, y, z: for example,
xz
is the angle between the x

-axis and
the z-axis. We can then write the position vector (or indeed any vector) as

r = x x + y y + z z = x

+ y

+ z

. (5.4)
Since

x

,

y

,

z

are orthogonal, we can nd the rotated coordinate x

by
x

r

x

= x x

x

+ y y

x

+ z z

x

= xcos
xx
+ y cos
xy
+ z cos
xz
. (5.5)
Similarly we nd
y

== xcos
yx
+ y cos
yy
+ z cos
yz
, z

== xcos
zx
+ y cos
zy
+ z cos
zz
, (5.6)
This can be written as a matrix equation,
_
_
x

_
_
=
_
_
cos
xx
cos
xy
cos
xz
cos
yx
cos
yy
cos
yz
cos
zx
cos
zy
cos
zz
_
_
_
_
x
y
z
_
_


r

= A

r (5.7)
The 3 3 matrix A is called the rotation matrix.
5.2.1 Active and passive transformations
There are two equivalent ways of thinking about rotations:
59
1. You rotate the coordinate system, as described above. This is called a passive
rotation, since it is not doing anything to the world, only to the mathematical
description of it. The rotation matrix then gives the relation between the old and
the new coordinates.
2. You leave the coordinate system in place, but rotate your points (for example the
body you want to describe) in the opposite direction. This is called an active
rotation, since you are now doing something to the world. The rotation matrix
then gives the positions of the body after it has been rotated, given the position
before.
The two points of view are mathematically equivalent: the relation between old and
new coordinates are exactly the same.
The two pictures: active and passive, and the equivalence between them, can be extended
to other transformations, such as translations, where it is the same whether you move
an object from a position x to a position x + a or you shift the coordinate system by
a.
5.2.2 Elementary rotation matrices
For a rotation about the z-axis, it is clear that the z-coordinates are unchanged. If we
rotate an angle , then we have that
xx
=
yy
= (the angles between the old and new
x- and y-axes respectively). The angle
xy
between the old y-axis and the new x-axis is
90

, while theangle
yx
between the old x-axis and the new y-axis is 90

+ . The
rotation matrix is therefore
A
z
() =
_
_
cos cos(90

) 0
cos(90

+ ) cos 0
0 0 1
_
_
=
_
_
cos sin 0
sin cos 0
0 0 1
_
_
(5.8)
Similarly we nd for rotations about the x- and y-axes,
A
x
() =
_
_
1 0 0
0 cos sin
0 sin cos
_
_
, A
y
() =
_
_
cos 0 sin
0 1 0
sin 0 cos
_
_
. (5.9)
5.2.3 General properties of rotation matrices
1. Any combination of two successive rotations about the same point (albeit about
dierent axes through that point) is a rotation about that point.
This is obvious, since the relative distance of each point from the xed point
(origin) remains unchanged throughout. We can therefore describe the combined
rotation by a rotation matrix which is the product of the two rotation matrices.
If we call the coordinates after the rst rotation

r

and after the second rotation
60

r

, and the two rotation matrices A (rst rotation) and A

(second rotation), we
have

r

= A

r

= A

(A

r ) = (A

A)

r = B

r with B = A

A. (5.10)
Note that the rst rotation matrix is on the right and the second rotation matrix
is on the left.
Example 5.1
Find the rotation matrix corresponding to a 30

rotation about the z-axis followed

by a 45

rotation about the z-axis.

Solution: A rotation of an angle 30

about the x-axis is, according to (5.9),

A
x
(30

) =
_
_
1 0 0
0 cos 30

sin 30

0 sin 30

cos 30

_
_
=
_
_
1 0 0
0
1
2

3
1
2
0
1
2
1
2

3
_
_
. (5.11)
The matrix for a 45

rotation about the z-axis is

A
z
(45

) =
_
_
cos 45

sin 45

0
sin 45

cos 45

0
0 0 1
_
_
=
_
_
1
2

2
1
2

2 0

1
2

2
1
2

2 0
0 0 1
_
_
. (5.12)
The combined rotation is
A = A
z
A
x
=
_
_
1
2

2
1
2

2 0

1
2

2
1
2

2 0
0 0 1
_
_
_
_
1 0 0
0
1
2

3
1
2
0
1
2
1
2

3
_
_
=
_
_
1
2

2
1
4

6
1
4

1
2

2
1
4

6
1
4

2
0
1
2
1
2

3
_
_
(5.13)
2. Rotations (about dierent axes) are not commutative: the order in which you do
them matters.
We know that matrix multiplication is not commutative: AB = BA if A and B
are matrices. You can also show for yourself that if you for example rotate a book
90

about the x-axis followed by 90

about the y-axis, you get something dierent

from doing the two in reverse order.
Example 5.2
The rotation matrix for a 45

rotation about the z-axis followed by a 30

rotation
about the x-axis is
B

= A
x
A
z
=
_
_
1 0 0
0
1
2

3
1
2
0
1
2
1
2

3
_
_
_
_
1
2

2
1
2

2 0

1
2

2
1
2

2 0
0 0 1
_
_
=
_
_
1
2

2
1
2

2 0

1
4

6
1
4

6
1
2
1
4

2
1
4

2
1
2

3
_
_
= B
(5.14)
61
3. All rotation matrices are orthogonal, A
T
A = 11.
Proof: We know that the distance of any point from the origin is the same before
and after the rotation. Therefore we have that

r
2
=
_
x

_
_
_
x

_
_
= r
T
r

= (Ar)
T
(Ar) = r
T
A
T
Ar =

r
2
= r
T
r (5.15)
A
T
A = 11 . (5.16)
We can check explicitly that all the matrices in the examples above are orthogonal.
We can also show that if A and B are orthogonal, then their product AB is also
orthogonal:
(AB)
T
(AB) = (B
T
A
T
)(AB) = B
T
(A
T
A)B = B
T
B = 11 . (5.17)
4. For every rotation A there is an inverse rotation given by A
T
which brings us back
to our starting point.
It is physically obvious that you can always get back to your starting point by
reversing all your rotations in reverse order. It follows from point 3. that the
inverse rotation matrix is given by A
T
.
5. (a) Any (proper) rotation can be expressed as a combination of elementary ro-
tations about coordinate axes.
(b) No combination of such rotations can produce a reection

r

r .
(c) All proper rotations have det A = 1. Improper rotations (involving an odd
number of reections) have det A = 1.
The proof of (a) is complicated, but we will use this fact later on when we will
dene coordinates corresponding to the the rotational degrees of freedom.
Statement (c) follows from the properties of determinants. It is straightforward
to show that the elementary rotation matrices all have det A = 1. We also have
det(AB) = (det A)(det B) (5.18)
so any combination of elementary rotations must have determinant 1. Moreover,
any orthogonal matrix A must have det A = 1:
det 11 = 1 = det(A
T
A) = det A
T
det A = (det A)
2
. (5.19)
Finally, the reection matrix, which takes (x, y, z) (x, y, z) is
R =
_
_
1 0 0
0 1 0
0 0 1
_
_
, det R = 1 . (5.20)
It is clearly impossible to construct this from a product of matrices with determi-
nant 1. Physically, this means that it is impossible (in 3 dimensions) to rotate a
body into its mirror image.
62
5.2.4 The rotation group [optional]
A group is dened as a set of elements, together with a composition (multiplication)
operation, with the following properties:
1. There exists an identity element (called 1 or e) which is a member of the group.
2. The combination a b of two elements a and b is also a member of the group.
3. For every member a of the group there is an inverse a
1
which is also a member
of the group, such that a a
1
= a
1
a = 1.
We see that rotations form a group according to this denition: properties 1 and 4 of
Sec. 5.2.3 correspond to properties 2 and 3 above. The identiy element is the operation
of doing nothing, corresponding to the identity matrix.
We can use the rotation matrices to dene this group, and this gives the rotation group
its name: O(3), or the group of real orthogonal 33 matrices. The set of all proper rota-
tions also form a (smaller) group, called SO(3), or the group of all special [determinant
1] real orthogonal 33 matrices. However, this is merely a particular representation of
the general operation that we call rotations. We could equally well represent the group
elements by actual rotations in space, or by 3 angles (with a suitably dened multiplica-
tion operation), or in many other ways. All these dierent representations would share
the same multiplication table, which is what ultimately denes the group.
This theory of dierent representations of the same group is mathematically extremely
powerful, and the group-theory properties of rotations are extremely important in mod-
ern physics. For example, particles and bodies in general may be classied according to
how they behave when rotated, and this turns out to be a fundamental classication.
It is possible to express any rotation matrix formally as
A = e

L

T
, with T
1
=
_
_
0 0 0
0 0 1
0 1 0
_
_
, T
2
=
_
_
0 0 1
0 0 0
1 0 0
_
_
, T
3
=
_
_
0 1 0
1 0 0
0 0 0
_
_
.
(5.21)
This expression is very useful theoretically, but useless if you want to nd an explicit
form for A. It does however give a direct connection between rotations and angular
momentum. The T matrices obey the commutation relations
[T
1
, T
2
] = 2T
3
, [T
2
, T
3
] = 2T
1
, [T
3
, T
1
] = 2T
2
. (5.22)
These are essentially the commutation relations of the angular momentum operators
in quantum mechanics, and the vector

L is proportional to the angular momentum
of the particle in question. But it turns out that there is another group with the
same multiplication table, namely the group of 2 2 complex unitary matrices with
determinant 1, called SU(2). The operations of this group actually describe the rotations
of fermions, while bosons such as photons are described by the usual 3 3 rotation
matrices. The SU(2) matrices can be written in a similar form to (5.21),
A = e
i

S

, (5.23)
63
Figure 5.1: The Euler angles
where

1
=
_
0 1
1 0
_
,
2
=
_
0 i
i 0
_
,
3
=
_
1 0
0 1
_
, (5.24)
are the three Pauli matrices, which obey the same commutation relations as the T-
matrices in (5.21) (up to a factor i). The vector

S is a new form of angular momentum

called spin, which corresponds to an internal rotation degree of freedom. A curious
result is that we must rotate a fermion by 4 (2 full rotations) to get back to where we
started!
5.3 Euler angles
We now go on to discuss which coordinates we can use to describe the orientation of a
rigid body, or alternatively, which three parameters can be used to uniquely obtain a
rotated coordinate system from an original one. There are several possibilities:
The most natural would be to use rotation angles about the x-, y- and z-axes. This
leads to the three TaitBryan angles, which are widely used for aircraft. However,
since rotations do not commute, unless supplemented with a prescription for the
order of the three rotations, these angles are not unique, except for small rotations.
The next most natural parameter would be to nd the axis and angle of rotation,
ie the vector

above. This is called the CayleyKlein or Euler parameters. These

are mathematically very nice, and can be related to the vector

L given above, but

are not very practical.
The third, most widely used parametrisation in mechanics is in terms of the three
Euler angles. Here, a general rotation is constructed from 3 successive elementary
rotations:
1. The body is rotated an angle [0, 2 about the z-axis. The x- and y-axes
move, while the z-axis is unchanged.
64
2. The body is rotated an angle [0, ] about its x-axis. The z- and y-axes
move, but the x

-axis is unchanged.
3. The body is rotated an angle [0, 2 about its z-axis. As in the rst step,
the x- and y-axes move, while the z

-axis is unchanged.
Note that there is no rotation about any y-axis here; instead there are two rotations
about (dierent) z-axes. These three rotations are summarised in gure 5.1. It
can be proved that any rotation can be expressed in this way.
5.3.1 Rotation matrix for Euler angles
5.3.2 Euler angles and angular velocity
The total angular velocity can be constructed as the sum of angular velocities that result
from the changes in each of the three Euler angles. Note that simply adding these three
vectors together is ok, since these correspond to innitesimal changes in orientation,
and for such changes the order does not matter. Hence we can write

. (5.25)
The magnitude of each of these three vectors is the respective angular velocity:

,

,

.
But in which directions are they pointing? We will in the end want to express the
angular velocity in the body coordinate system, since it will turn out that the equations
of motion are best expressed in these coordinates.

This vector points along the original z-axis, which is unchanged by the rst rota-
tion. The second rotation is about the x-axis, and changes the vector (0, 0,

)
(0,

sin ,

cos ). After the nal rotation of an angle about the z-axis, we get

= (

sin sin ,

sin cos ,

cos ) . (5.26)

This vector poins along the intermediate x-axis, so after the second rotation we
have

= (

, 0, 0).

This vector points along the bodys z-axis, so

= (0, 0,

).
Adding up these, we get

=
_
_

sin sin +

cos

sin cos

sin

cos +

_
_
(5.27)
We will use this to derive the equations of motion. But rst we need to determine the
kinetic energy.
65
5.4 The inertia tensor
5.4.1 Rotational kinetic energy
Let us now work out the total kinetic energy of a rigid body. From (5.3) we get that
T =
1
2

V +

r

)
2
=
1
2

V
2
+ 2

V (

r

) + (

r

)
2
_
=
1
2
M

V
2
+

r

+
1
2

r

)
2
(5.28)
If one point P in the body is xed, ie the motion is pure rotation then the

V = 0
so the rst two terms vanish, and the third is the rotational energy T
rot
, where

r

is the distance from particle number to the point P.
If we take the origin to be the centre of mass, then we can show that the second
term vanishes, and the kinetic energy can be written as the sum of the centre of
mass energy and the rotational energy about the centre of mass:
R = T
CM
+ T
rot
=
1
2
M

V
2
CM
+
1
2

r

)
2
, (5.29)
where

r

is the distance from particle number in the body to the centre of
mass.
We now use that the angular velocity

is the same for the whole body. We furthermore

use the identity
(

B)
2
= A
2
B
2
sin
2

AB
= A
2
B
2
(1 cos
2

AB
) = A
2
B
2
(

B)
2
. (5.30)
With this, (5.29) becomes
T
rot
=
1
2

_
r
2

2
(

r

)
2

(5.31)
=
1
2

_
r
2

2
i

ij
(x
,i

i
)(x
,j

j
)

(5.32)
=
1
2

ij

k
x
2
,k

ij
x
,i
x
,j
_

j
(5.33)
=
1
2

ij
I
ij

j
=
1
2

. (5.34)
We end up with
66
T
rot
=
1
2

ij
I
ij

j
, (5.35)
I
ij
=

(r
2

ij
x
,i
x
,j
_

j

_
(

x (

x
2

ij
x
i
x
j
)d
3
x (5.36)
The quantity I = {I
ij
} is called the inertia tensor of the body. It characterises the
rotational properties of the body.
If

is directed purely along one of the coordinate axes, for example

= (0, 0, ), we
see that T
rot
reduces to the expression we have encountered before,
T
rot
=
1
2

ij
I
ij

j
=
1
2
I
zz

2
, (5.37)
where I
zz
is the moment of inertia about the z-axis. But the expression (5.35) is much
more general, and will hold in any (orthogonal) coordinate system, regardless of which
direction the rotation vector is pointing.
We can non calculate the inertia tensor once and for all in the body coordinate system
(indeed, we will later use it to dene this coordinate system). Once we know I in
one coordinate system, we shall see that we can relatively easily nd it in any other
coordinate system.
Example 5.3
T
E
x
y

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .

x
zm
1
m
2
r
2
Figure 5.2: A dumbbell
Find the inertia tensor of the dumbbell pictured in
g. 5.2, and nd the kinetic energy if it rotates with
angular velocity
1. about the y-axis,
2. about the z-axis,
3. about its own axis.
Answer:
Particle 1 is located at

r
1
= (r
1
sin , r
1
cos , 0).
Particle 2 is located at

r
2
= (r
2
sin , r
2
cos , 0).
67
The components of I are
I
xx
= m
1
(r
2
1
x
2
1
) + m
2
(r
2
2
x
2
2
) = m
1
r
2
1
(1 sin
2
) + m
2
r
2
2
(1 sin
2
)
= (m
1
r
2
1
+ m
2
r
2
2
) cos
2

I
xy
= m
1
x
1
y
1
m
2
x
2
y
2
= (m
1
r
2
1
+ m
2
r
2
2
) sin cos = I
yx
I
xz
= m
1
x
1
z
1
m
2
x
2
z
2
= 0 = I
zx
I
yz
= m
1
y
1
z
1
m
2
y
2
z
2
= 0 = I
zy
I
yy
= m
1
(r
2
1
y
2
1
) + m
2
(r
2
2
y
2
2
) = (m
1
r
2
1
+ m
2
r
2
2
) sin
2

I
zz
= m
1
(r
2
1
z
2
1
) + m
2
(r
2
2
z
2
2
) = m
1
r
2
1
+ m
2
r
2
2
1. For rotation about the y-axis,

= (0, , 0), so
T
rot
=
1
2
I
yy

2
=
1
2
(m
1
r
2
1
+ m
2
r
2
2
)
2
sin
2

2. For rotation about the z-axis,

= (0, 0, ), so
T
rot
=
1
2
I
zz

2
=
1
2
(m
1
r
2
1
+ m
2
r
2
2
)
2
.
3. For rotation about the body axis,

= ( sin , cos , 0), so
T
rot
=
1
2
I
xx

2
x
+
1
2
I
xy

y
+
1
2
I
yx

x
+
1
2
I
yy

2
y
=
1
2
(m
1
r
2
1
+ m
2
r
2
2
)
2
[cos
2
sin
2
2(sin cos )(sin cos ) sin
2
cos
2
]
= 0 .
It should not be a surprise that we get T
rot
= 0 here, since nothing is actually
moving in this case!
5.4.2 What is a tensor?
In practice, you can think of a tensor as a kind of matrix, where the rows and columns
correspond to directions in space. You may then treat the expression for T
rot
as a
vectormatrixvector multiplication.
In principle, a tensor is a generalisation of a vector, ie a physical (or mathematical)
quantity with more than one direction. Tensors (and vectors) are dened by their trans-
formation properties, and in particular how they change when they, or the coordinate
system, are rotated. We shall see that in a rotated coordinate system, the inertia tensor
68
is given by
I

ij
=

kl
A
ik
A
jl
I
kl
. (5.38)
This is the dening property of a tensor (to be precise, a rank-2 tensor, ie a tensor with
2 indices).
Other examples of tensors
5.4.3 Rotations and the inertia tensor
How does the inertia tensor change if we rotate our coordinate system? To answer this
question, we can use the fact that the kinetic energy must be the same regardless of
how we choose our coordinates (it is a scalar):
T
rot
=
1
2

ij

i
I
ij

j
=
1
2

ij

i
I

ij

j
. (5.39)
But

is a vector, and changes in the same way as the position vector when rotated
1
,

i
=

k
A
ik

k
. (5.40)
Substituting this into (5.39), we get
T
rot
=
1
2

ij

k
A
ik

k
I

ij

l
A
jl

l
=
1
2

kl
_

ij
A
ik
I

ij
A
jl
_

l
=
1
2

kl

k
I
kl

l
. (5.41)
So we nd that I
kl
=

ij
A
ik
I

ij
A
jl
or I = A
T
I

A.
5.4.4 Angular momentum and the inertia tensor
We want to nd the angular momentum

L of a rigid body about some point O. This
point can be
the centre of mass (for a body tumbling freely in space, for example), or
some point xed in space (for example a spinning top).
The momentum of some particle is

p

= m

v

= m

r

. Using the vector
identity

A (

A) = A
2

B (

B)

A (5.42)
1
Strictly speaking, this is not quite the case: under a reection,

r , but

is unchanged. We
call a vector which behaves this way a pseudovector or axial-vector. The angular momentum is another
example of such a pseudovector.
69
we can write the total angular momentum as

L =

p

=

r

(

r

) =

_
r
2

r

_
(5.43)
L
i
=

(r
2

j
x
,j

j
x
,i
) =

j
(r
2

ij
x
,j
x
,i
)
j
(5.44)
=

j
_

(r
2

ij
_

j
=

j
I
ij

j
. (5.45)
So we nd
L
i
=

j
I
ij

j
or

L = I

(5.46)
5.5 Principal axes of inertia
Life would be a lot simpler if, in some coordinate system, the inertia were diagonal,
I =
_
_
I
1
0 0
0 I
2
0
0 0 I
3
_
_
(I
ij
=
ij
) . (5.47)
We would then have
L
i
= I
i

i
; T
rot
=
1
2

i
I
i

2
i
. (5.48)
In particular, if the body rotates about one of the axes of such a coordinate system, we
have

L = I

, T
rot
=
1
2
I
2
.
The good news is that it is always possible to nd such a set of (body) coordinate
axes. These axes are called principal axes of inertia, and the corresponding I
1
, I
2
, I
3
are
the principal moments of inertia.
The question then is how we nd these axes. There are two methods:
Find a rotation matrix A such at AIA
T
= I

is diagonal. The coordinate axes in

the rotated system are then the principal axes.
Find vectors (directions)

such that

L = I

= I

. These vectors form the

principal axes of inertia, and the numbers I are the principal moments.
In fact, both these methods are mathematically identical. Let us rst look at method
2. If

points along a principal axis of inertia, we have
L
i
=

j
I
ij

j
= I
i
, (5.49)
70
where I is the corresponding moment of inertia, or
L
1
I
1
= I
11

1
+ I
12

2
+ I
13

3
L
2
I
2
= I
21

1
+ I
22

2
+ I
23

3
L
3
I
3
= I
31

1
+ I
32

2
+ I
33

3
(5.50)
This is an eigenvalue problem. The condition for a nontrivial solution is det(II11) = 0.
This gives us a (third-degree) equation for I, called the characteristic equation. The
solutions are the principal moments of inertia (or eigenvalues of I). Once we have
found one of the solutions (eigenvalues), we can nd the corresponding principal axis
by substituting the values of I into the equation for

L = I

= I

. This gives
us the direction of

, or equivalently, the ratios
1
:
2
:
3
. The vectors

are the
eigenvectors of I.
5.6 Equations of motion
5.6.1 The symmetric heavy top
5.6.2 Stability of rigid-body rotations
71