Equations of motion - Assignment Example

In rotational motion, the forces generate angular acceleration as well as where the point where the force is applied. Thus, angular acceleration is generated by torque. Torque is the product of the applied force and the moment arm, (N-m). Its magnitude is expressed as . In order to understand angular motion, an experiment was set to investigate the rotation motion of objects. The objective of the experiment was to utilize the knowledge in physics in performing it without the assistance of computer simulation to measure time and determine and predict the velocity of a rotating object.

Angular motion can be described through the use of linear velocity and acceleration. But it is not convenient to use the same since the linear velocity and acceleration are dependent on the distance from a rotation axis. Angular quantities can thus be used to describe rotational kinematics and dynamics in complete analogy with linear dynamics and kinematics. The angular displacement of a solid disk rotating about a fixed axis is the angle at which the disk turns. The convention is that a displacement is positive if clockwise and negative when counterclockwise.

The unit of measurement is the radian (rad), which is dimensionless. A radian is the ration of the arc length to the radius. The total arc length around a complete circle is the circumference, and thus there are 2 radians in 360°. Therefore, one radian is equal to 57.3°. Angular velocity is the rate of change of an angle with respect to time, and it is the same for all parts of a rotating body. It is a vector quantity and thus, its direction is along the axis of rotation. Its unit is radians/second.

Angular acceleration is the rate of change of this velocity and is expressed