Angular Momentum

Nirmaan Shanker
December 2015

Introduction

In the previous set of notes, we finally started considering the orientation of an object along with its translation.
This required us to determine rotational analogues for all of our linear quantities. In particular, we looked at the
rotational analogue of force, torque, and derived the rotational analogue of Newtons Second Law. In this set of
notes, we will continue our formulation of rotational analogues by describing the rotational analogue of momentum:
angular momentum.

2
2.1

Angular Momentum
Defining Angular Momentum

~ for a point particle to be the following,

We will define angular momentum, denoted by L,
~ = ~r p~.
L
Just like the time derivative of momentum yielded force, the time derivative of angular momentum is torque. We
can verify this as follows,
~
d~r
d~
p
dL
=
p~ + ~r .
dt
dt
dt
We now note that the first term goes to zero as both vectors are parallel to each other. Therefore, we are left with
~
dL
d~
p
= ~r
= ~r F~ = ~ .
dt
dt
This proves that torque is indeed the time derivative of angular momentum.

2.2

Angular Momentum of a Rigid Body Rotating About a Fixed Axis

It is important to note that the definition presented above only works well with point particles. In order to find the
angular momentum for a continuous mass, we must add up the angular momentum of each mass element. Thus,
Z
L = ~r ~v dm
Let us also assume that our body is rotating about a fixed axis. This implies that ~r and ~v are mutually orthogonal
to each other as well as being orthogonal to the axis of rotation. This helps determine the cross product. The cross
product reduces down to rv = r2 and is parallel to
~ . Therefore,
Z
L = r2 dm.
Finally recognizing that r2 dm represents the moment of inertia, we have:
~ = I~
L
.
1

Conservation of Angular Momentum

As with momentum, there are often situations where angular momentum is conserved. From the definition of angular
momentum, we can assert that angular momentum will be conserved where the net torque of the system is zero.
Now lets look at various examples that highlight this principle.

3.1

Example: Elastic Collision

Problem: A mass m travels perpendicular to a stick of mass m and length l, which is initially at rest. At what
location should the mass collide elastically with the stick so that the mass and the center of mass of the stick move
with equal speeds after the collision.
Solution: We have three relationships, which we will look at in turn: conservation of linear momentum, conservation
of kinetic energy, and conservation of angular momentum. Starting with conservation of linear momentum, we see
that:
mv0 = mvf + mvf
Solving for vf , we see that we get vf =

v0
2 .

We will now look at conservation of kinetic energy and see that we get:

1
1
mv02 = mvf2 +
2
2

1
1
mvf2 +
2
2

ml2 2

12


.

0
Substituting vf = v20 , we see that = 6v
l . Now finally looking at conservation of angular momentum and letting
h be the distance from the center of mass that the mass hits the stick, we see that:

mv0 h = mvf h +

ml2
.
12

Finally, substituting for vf and , we see that the answer is h =

3.2

Example: Inelastic Collision

Problem: A mass m travels at a speed v0 perpendicular to a stick of mass m and length l, which is initially at rest.
The mass now inelastically collides with the end of the stick. What is the resulting angular velocity of the system?
Solution: We first note that the moment of inertia will change as the mass will stick to the stick. We therefore
can determine that the moment of inertia after the collision will be:
 2 !
 2
ml2
l
l
5
I = Istick + Imass =
+m
+m
=
ml2 .
12
2
4
24
Now we simply apply conservation of angular momentum and set the origin to be
gives us,
l
5
mv0 =
ml2 .
4
24
Solving for , we get
6v0
=
.
5l

l
4

from the end of the stick, which

And thats essentially it. For your AP Physics class, that is all the information that you will need to know to
successfully answer all the questions. Of course, you still need to practice a lot of problems in order to fully
understand angular momentum (look at the problem set!).