Angular Acceleration

Newtons second law

= a F m (1)
can be rewritten as

= G F
&
(2)
where G is the angular momentum, so long as the mass remains constant. This simply says that the
sum of the forces equals the rate of change of momentum (where v G m = is the momentum).
Integrating over time between times t
1
and t
2
gives
(3)
1 2
2
1
2
1
v v a F m m dt m dt
t
t
t
t
= =

This is the equation that relates impulse and change of momentum and can be illustrated in vector
form as in Figure 1.

x
y
mv
2

2
1
t
t
dt F
mv
1

Figure 1: Sum of initial linear momentum plus linear impulse equals final linear momentum.
The angular equivalent is

=
O O
H M
&
(4)
This states that the sum of the moments on a system (not necessarily a rigid body the only condition
is that the mass must remain constant) about an arbitrary point O, is equal to the rate of change of the
angular momentum about that point.
For planar motion we can write

=
O O
H M
&
(5)
since the direction of the moment and the angular momentum vectors are equal and unchanging.
We have derived equations for the angular momentum of a rigid body for a number of situations and
these can be used to relate the moments on a system to the angular acceleration.

PURE ROTATION
The magnitude of the angular momentum of a rigid body rotating about its mass centre is
I H
O
= (6)
where O is an arbitrary point. For planar motion of a rigid body, therefore
I I H M
O O
= = = &
&
(7)
where is the angular acceleration. This applies no matter where O is located. This may seem a bit
strange surely the sum of the moments is dependent on the position of O (the further an applied
force is to O the larger the moment) and this would suggest that the angular acceleration is dependent
on the point about which you calculate the moments! This is obviously not the case. Why not?
GENERAL MOTION
Lets consider the case shown in Figure 2 where a single force is applied to a rigid body. The
equations relating the motion of the body to the forces and the moments should be independent of the
choice of point O the choice of the location of O cant affect the movement of the body!

Figure 2: Force F applied to rigid body.
The equation for the angular momentum of a rigid body performing general motion is

+ = d v m I H
O

where is the perpendicular distance between the mass centre velocity vector and O. From
Equation (

d
4) we have


+ + = =

d v m d a m I H M
O O
& &
(8)
Is this correct? The answer is no! You have to be careful when differentiating an equation that
involves perpendicular distances. Differentiating the scalar version of the equation does not work!
Care must be taken when writing the vector form of this equation.
( ) v d H + = m I
O
(9)
where d is the vector starting at O and ending at the point of application of the force. The length of the
vector v d is equal to

d v but you need to be careful with signs. In the case of a cross-product, that
means that you need to be careful with the order of the multiplication. In the case where a body is
rotating about a fixed point C other than its mass centre, the velocity of the mass centre is simply due
to its rotation about C. The direction is obvious. For general motion the velocity of the mass centre
may be unrelated to the rotation of the body (for example, consider a falling body which may be
rotating clockwise, counter-clockwise, or not at all).
How do you remember whether to write v d or Error! Objects cannot be created from editing field
codes.?
Differentiating Equation (9) with respect to time gives
( ) v d v d M + + =

& &
m I
O

Now remember that d is the position vector of the mass centre relative to O. Therefore the rate of
change of this vector with respect to time equals the velocity of the mass centre (i.e. v d =
&
) and
therefore 0 = v d
&
. This means that
( ) v d M
&
+ =

m I
O

and so the scalar version of this equation is

+ =

d a m I M
O
(10)
where is the perpendicular distance between O and

d a .
This is clearly different to Equation (8) and this shows firstly that you need to be careful when
differentiating an equation that involves a perpendicular distance between a vector and a point and,
secondly, that sometimes we have to resort to using vectors to derive equations even when problems
can be solved using the scalar versions of those same equations.
Now Newtons second law for the situation shown in Figure 2 gives
m
F
a =
and since the acceleration is in the direction of F, , (see d D d + =

&
Figure 2) and so Equation (10)
can be rewritten as
( ) d D F I M
O
+ + =

or
( ) ( ) d D F I d D F + + = +
which gives =0. In other words, the rigid body will simply accelerate in the direction of F and will
not rotate. In order to have angular acceleration, there must be a couple acting on a body.
In practice, if you push a body across a surface, there is normally an additional friction force as a
result, unless you push at the mass centre, the body will rotate as well as translate.

Example
Lets illustrate the use of Equation (10) with a simple example. Consider a light rigid bar with a mass
m on either end (Figure 3). The body is allowed to fall under gravity. The only forces on the body are
the weights of the two masses as shown. The moment about the mass centre is clearly zero and this
leads to zero angular acceleration. The moment about any other point is, however, not zero.

The rule no net moments about a point implies zero angular acceleration only apples to static systems.
No net moment about the mass centre implies zero angular acceleration this is true for any system.
No net moment about any other point does not imply zero angular acceleration if the system is
moving.

The equation that relates the moments and the angular acceleration is

+ =

d a m I M
O

If O is at the mass centre then the perpendicular distance from the acceleration vector for the mass
centre and the mass centre is 0 and therefore
I M
G
=

Figure 3: Light rigid bar with two masses and weights indicated.
For the example shown in Figure 4, consider the moments about point A. The acceleration of the mass
centre will be g downwards. The equation

+ =

d a m I M
O

becomes
2
2
l
mg I mgl + =
where l is the distance between the mass centres of the two masses. Note that you need to be
consistent with directions and signs. Rearranging this gives =0 as before.

Figure 4: Light rigid bar with two masses and weights indicated. The mass times the acceleration of the mass
centre is also indicated.
Lets consider another example. A yo-yo (Figure 5) of mass m falls under gravity. Assume the string
is vertical as shown. What is the acceleration downwards of the yo-yo and what is the tension in the
string?
Applying

= a F m gives, in the vertical direction

T mg a m = (11)
There is no acceleration of the mass centre in the horizontal direction since there is no force in that
direction. You have two unknowns and only one equation so a second equation is required. You can
use

+ =

d a m I M
O
, but you have a choice over what point to calculate the moments about.
The choice of point will not affect your answer but choosing one point over another may make things
easier for you.
Lets start with the mass centre we get
I Tr =
(taking moments and accelerations as positive in the anti-clockwise direction) or

I
Tr
= (12)
Note that we are taking moments about the instantaneous mass centre. The equation

+ =

d a m I M
O
does not hold if the point O is accelerating.
Assuming we know the mass, the radius, and the moment of inertia, we now have two equations in
three unknowns (T, a , and ). This is where, in problems like this, you need to consider the
kinematics of the system. If the yo-yo rolls down the string without sliding then a and are
dependent on each other. We need to figure out the relationship. What is it?
Using this relationship to replace a in Equation (11) above gives
T mg mr =
Replacing using Equation (12) gives
T mg
I
mrTr
=
or

+ =
I
mr
mg T
2
1
This means that the tension is less than mg. This is what would be expected since the yo-yo is
accelerating downwards. Using this to calculate a gives

+ =
I
mr
mg mg a m
2
1
The moment of inertia of a disc of mass m and radius r about its mass centre is
2
2
1
mr I = . What
would the downward acceleration be if the yo-yo was a disc?


Figure 5: Yo-yo showing weight and tension. Assume that the cord stays vertical.
Now, what if you had taken moments about the point C where the string touches the yo-yo? The
equation

+ =

d a m I M
O
would give
r a m I mgr + =
If you combine this with r a = and T mg a m = , you will end up with the same result as above.

Note that sometimes, as in this case, there is more than one reasonable point to calculate moments
about it makes very little difference which one you choose. Sometimes, however, choosing a
particular point allows certain unknown forces to be ignored.

SOLUTIONS
Pure rotation
Consider the situation where a force is applied to a rigid body as in Figure 6. The moment of the force
about the point O is F(d+D). Since the moment is related to the angular velocity, this suggests that the
angular acceleration of the body depends on the choice of the point O. This is clearly not the case.
What is going on here?

Figure 6: Force F applied to rigid body.
The equation
I M
O
=
only applies if the body is in pure rotation (i.e. if the mass centre does not move). In the situation
described in Figure 6 the mass centre will be accelerated in the direction of the force F (since

= a F m ). This general case is considered further above.

For the body to rotate about the mass centre, the mass centre can be constrained so that it does not
move (this is not strictly necessary but more on this below). There is then a reaction force acting on
the body at that point. If the mass centre is not moving then this force must be equal and opposite to F
as shown in Figure 7. The total moment about O is now
( )

= + = Fd FD d D F M
O
(13)
taking positive moments to be in the counter-clockwise direction. As can be seen from this, it doesnt
matter where O is located. You therefore get
I Fd =
for this case.

Figure 7: Rigid body with applied force and reaction force.
The higher the moment of inertia is, the higher the force must be in order to achieve a desired angular
acceleration. Also, the further the point of action of the force is from the mass centre, the faster the
acceleration will be.
By simply moving the force, you can achieve more with it! There must be some down-side to this.
What is it?

Note that it was said above that in order for the body to rotate about its mass centre, the mass centre
can be constrained. This is not a necessary condition. In order for the mass centre to not move, there
must be a force equal to F and opposing it, (giving 0 =

F and therefore 0 = a m ) but this

opposing force can be acting at any point on the body. These two opposing forces (see Figure 8) form
a couple i.e. they produce a turning moment but no net force. The total moment about G is equal to
M
G
=F(d
1
+d
2
). Show that the total moment about any arbitrary point is the same as that about G.

Figure 8: Couple acting on rigid body.
To physically create the situation in Figure 7 you would have to constrain the body to rotate about G.
This is easy to do (for example, you could attach a shaft to the body at G and constrain it using a fixed
bearing. If a force is applied to a point on the body (e.g. by simply pushing with your finger) then the
force applied by the bearing to the body (assuming negligible friction) will be equal and opposite
(otherwise G would have to accelerate and it cant).
It would be considerably more complicated to produce the situation in Figure 8. In this case the two
equal and opposite forces must be applied to the body which cannot be constrained in the plane of
motion. One possibility is shown in Figure 9. In this case the body is constrained to move in the plane
of the diagram by being placed on a frictionless table. The body is initially released in a position
where the two equal springs are compressed by the same amount and hence it experiences two equal
and opposite forces.
At the instant of release the body will begin to rotate about its mass centre. Ignore friction between the
ends of the springs and the body and assume that the springs will not bend. Will the body continue to
rotate about its mass centre as it moves? What condition must be met for this to happen?


Figure 9: Body held released in position indicated with the two equal springs equally compressed.
Work-Energy
For the situation in Figure 4, the further the applied force is from the mass centre, the higher the
angular acceleration. The down-side is that the force has to act over a greater distance as the body
rotates.
Lets consider the situation where the force is always normal to the axis of the body (i.e. it rotates with
the body. This is illustrated in Figure 10. When the body has rotated through an angle , the force has
acted over the length of the arc shown in Figure 10b. Note that the reaction force acting on the mass
centre does no work since the mass centre does not move.
What is the length of the arc shown?
Show that the work done on the body during a rotation of radians is

=
O
M U where O is an
arbitrary point.




Figure 10: Applied force acting on rigid body that is constrained to rotate about its mass centre.
The work done must equal the change in energy. If the body has an initial angular velocity
0
in
Figure 10a, then what is the velocity in Figure 10b? The angular acceleration, as has been shown
already, is related to the moment by I Fd = , or
I
Fd
=
Since all the values on the right-hand side of this equation are constant in this problem, then so is the
angular velocity. We can therefore use the angular equivalent of
as u v 2
2 2
+ =
which is
2
2
0
2
+ =
The increase in the square of the angular velocity is therefore
2
2
=
or

I
Fd
2
2
=
Note that, as defined here, ,and is not equal to
2
0
2 2
= ( )
2
0
!
Now the work done is U =Fd and so we can write this as
I
U
2
2
=
or, rearranging
2
2
1
= I U
Since the work done has been translated into kinetic energy in this case, the increase in the kinetic
energy of the body must equal
2
2
1
I . The kinetic energy of a purely rotating body is
2
2
1
I .
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Length of arc
The length of the arc is simply d so long as the angle is measured in radians.
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Work done
The force acts over a distance d and so the work done is simply Fd. The moment about G is Fd and
therefore
G
M U = .
The two forces are equal and opposite and therefore form a couple (or torque). A couple is
independent of the point about which the moments are calculated. As has been shown above,
where O is an arbitrary distance from the mass centre and so .

= Fd M
O

=
O
M U
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Condition
2 1
d d =
Otherwise, as the body begins to rotate about the mass centre, the two springs will extend by different
amounts, the two forces will no longer be equal, and the mass centre will be accelerated.
Note that forces acting on the body will reduce as the springs extend in this case.

Figure 11 illustrates an alternative method of applying two equal and opposite forces to a rigid body
that do not change as the body rotates. A disc is attached to the rigid body with its centre at the mass
centre of the body. The body is constrained by placing it on a frictionless table. Two light cords are
wound around the disc. The two cords travel around two fixed horizontal pulleys as shown and then
over two fixed vertical pulleys before hanging vertically down past the side of the table. Two equal
masses are attached to the cords.
Will this system produce a constant angular acceleration around the mass centre?

Figure 11: System of pulleys with rigid body and attached disc constrained by frictionless table.
This mechanism constrains the body in an unwanted way. If it is moved sideways (Figure 12) then the
tension in the cord is at an angle to the body and there will be a resultant acceleration sideways. This
mechanism does not do what we desire.

Figure 12: Body moved to the side.
An alternative would be to place the body on a frictionless table and attach two rockets of some kind
to it, one facing each direction. If the rockets provided equal thrust then there would be equal and
opposite forces on the body which would rotate with it. Figure 13a shows the situation where the two
rockets apply forces to the body that are equally spaced from the mass centre. If the forces are equal
then the body will rotate about its mass centre. If the body was initially moving then the mass centre
will stay moving in the same way (it will not be accelerated).
Figure 13b shows an alternative arrangement. What will happen in this case?

G
F
F
(a) (b)
G
F
F

Figure 13: Thrust force from two rockets attached to body. Rockets can be placed at equal distances from the
mass centre (a) or can be moved along the body (b).
Heres an interesting question. The further apart the rockets are placed, the greater the moment applied
to the body and the faster its acceleration. By simply moving the rockets, they do work at a faster rate
(i.e. they become more powerful)! How can this be?

Cross-product
For the case where a rigid body is rotating about a point C, the two terms on the right of this equation
( ) v d H + = m I
C

must have the same signs. The angular momentum of a body rotating about a point other than its mass
centre and measured about that point will always be greater than that of the same body rotating about
its mass centre.
Now consider the case shown in Figure 14. If the angular velocity is in the direction shown then the
velocity of the mass centre must also be in the direction shown. The angular velocity vector will be
pointing out of the page (from the right-hand rule). Also from the right-hand rule, the vector v d
will also be pointing out of the page. This must be the correct form of the equation therefore (since
d v would have a different sign to ).
Check that this applies if the rotation is counter-clockwise or if the point C is to the right of G.
v

Figure 14: Velocity of mass centre and vector d shown for body rotating about C.
What if the angular momentum is measured about a point O other than the centre of rotation? We
know that
( ) v d H + = m I
O

where d is now the position vector of G relative to O. If the body is rotating about a fixed point C, do
the two terms on the right-hand side always have the same sign? The answer is no! Consider the
situation shown in Figure 15. In Figure 15a the angular momentum components (that due to rotation
and that due to translation) about O are both in the counter-clockwise direction. In Figure 15b, the
body has rotated about C and the two components are now in opposite directions (plus the translation
component has changed magnitude as well as sign).
As this body rotates at a constant angular velocity, therefore, the angular momentum measured about
O will go up and down. Since the rate of change of angular momentum is equal to the sum of the
moments on the body, this means that the sum of the moments must sometimes be positive and
sometimes be negative.
But surely to keep the body rotating at a constant velocity there is no need to have any forces acting
on it therefore the moment on it is zero and the angular momentum must stay constant!
The answer is that if the body is rotating at a constant angular velocity about a fixed point other than
the mass centre, then there is a force acting on it and this force has a moment about O. As the body
rotates about C the mass centre is being accelerated towards C, and therefore there must be a force
acting in that direction. Draw this force into the two diagrams in Figure 15 and you will see that the
moment of this force about O changes sign as the body rotates. This force has no moment about C and
therefore, if it is the only force acting on the body, the angular momentum about C is constant.
v
v

Figure 15: Rigid body rotating about C.
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Frictionless table
One way to create a frictionless table that would support a body in a vertical direction but across
which the body could slide with minimal friction, would be to create a table with a large number of
ball bearings on it. The bearing cases would be fixed to the table with the balls free to rotate.

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Rockets moved
For the case in Figure 13b, the mass centre will not accelerate since there is no unbalanced force on
the body. It will rotate about its mass centre in the same way as for the case shown in Figure 13a.
A couple applied at any point to a body has the same effect as the same couple applied to any other
point!
The moment produced by the couple is the same about every point.

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Rocket power
Lets look at a simpler situation to understand this. A rocket of mass M (Figure 16) fires a single
particle of mass m out the back. The force propelling the particle is F and acts on the particle for a
period t (as the particle accelerates out of it). If the rocket is initially stationary, what is its kinetic
energy after the particle is expelled?
Firstly, the change in momentum of the particle is equal to the impulse acting on it. If the final particle
velocity is v
p
(+ve to the right) then
p
mv Ft =
Since there is no external force acting on the system of rocket and particle, the linear momentum of
the system after the particle is fired is the same as that beforehand (i.e. zero). If the final velocity of
the rocket is v
R
(+ve to the left) then
p R
mv Mv =
Combining these equations gives
M Ft v
R
=
The final kinetic energy of the rocket is then
( )
( )
M
Ft
M Ft M Mv T
R R
2
2
1
2
2
1
2
2
1
= = =
As you can see from this equation, the smaller the mass of the rocket (M) is, the higher its potential
energy will be. Similarly, if the rocket is attached to another body, then the lighter that body is, the
more energy it will acquire from each particle expelled by the rocket.
While this is a linear case, it, at least, partly explains what happens in the example above when the
rockets are moved.

Figure 16: Rocket and particle accelerating in opposite directions.
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Kinematics of rolling without slip
At any instant the point of contact between the string and the yo-yo is not moving. The yo-yo is
therefore instantaneously rotating about this point (C in Figure 17). If the yo-yo was fixed to rotate
about C then the acceleration of the mass centre of the yo-yo would have two components, one
downwards and one towards C. This is not the case with the yo-yo, however the point C can move
and we know that the mass centre accelerates downwards since there are no horizontal forces on it.
Because it is instantaneously rotating about C, the linear acceleration of the mass centre is r.

Figure 17: Yo-yo with instantaneous centre of rotation, C, indicated.
You can calculate the acceleration of any point as being the sum the sum of that due to the translation
plus that due to the rotation. The acceleration downwards is equal to a for all points. Every point
other than the mass centre has two components of acceleration due to the rotation.
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Yo-yo
g a
3
2
=
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