# 10.7 Newton’s second law for rotation

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By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Calculate the torques on rotating systems about a fixed axis to find the angular acceleration
• Explain how changes in the moment of inertia of a rotating system affect angular acceleration with a fixed applied torque

In this section, we put together all the pieces learned so far in this chapter to analyze the dynamics of rotating rigid bodies. We have analyzed motion with kinematics and rotational kinetic energy but have not yet connected these ideas with force and/or torque. In this section, we introduce the rotational equivalent to Newton’s second law of motion and apply it to rigid bodies with fixed-axis rotation.

## Newton’s second law for rotation

We have thus far found many counterparts to the translational terms used throughout this text, most recently, torque, the rotational analog to force. This raises the question: Is there an analogous equation to Newton’s second law, $\Sigma \stackrel{\to }{F}=m\stackrel{\to }{a},$ which involves torque and rotational motion? To investigate this, we start with Newton’s second law for a single particle rotating around an axis and executing circular motion. Let’s exert a force $\stackrel{\to }{F}$ on a point mass m that is at a distance r from a pivot point ( [link] ). The particle is constrained to move in a circular path with fixed radius and the force is tangent to the circle. We apply Newton’s second law to determine the magnitude of the acceleration $a=F\text{/}m$ in the direction of $\stackrel{\to }{F}$ . Recall that the magnitude of the tangential acceleration is proportional to the magnitude of the angular acceleration by $a=r\alpha$ . Substituting this expression into Newton’s second law, we obtain

$F=mr\alpha .$

Multiply both sides of this equation by r ,

$rF=m{r}^{2}\alpha .$

Note that the left side of this equation is the torque about the axis of rotation, where r is the lever arm and F is the force, perpendicular to r . Recall that the moment of inertia for a point particle is $I=m{r}^{2}$ . The torque applied perpendicularly to the point mass in [link] is therefore

$\tau =I\alpha .$

The torque on the particle is equal to the moment of inertia about the rotation axis times the angular acceleration . We can generalize this equation to a rigid body rotating about a fixed axis.

## Newton’s second law for rotation

If more than one torque acts on a rigid body about a fixed axis, then the sum of the torques equals the moment of inertia times the angular acceleration:

$\sum _{i}{\tau }_{i}=I\alpha .$

The term $I\alpha$ is a scalar quantity and can be positive or negative (counterclockwise or clockwise) depending upon the sign of the net torque. Remember the convention that counterclockwise angular acceleration is positive. Thus, if a rigid body is rotating clockwise and experiences a positive torque (counterclockwise), the angular acceleration is positive.

[link] is Newton’s second law for rotation    and tells us how to relate torque, moment of inertia, and rotational kinematics. This is called the equation for rotational dynamics    . With this equation, we can solve a whole class of problems involving force and rotation. It makes sense that the relationship for how much force it takes to rotate a body would include the moment of inertia, since that is the quantity that tells us how easy or hard it is to change the rotational motion of an object.

who discover periodic table?
it wasn't discovered , it was made.and the person who made it was dmitri mendeleev. dobreinier and newland gave their laws before dmitri related periodic table but wasn't successful in their work
Ritik
Nope, numerous number of scientist had actually contributed in the making of periodic table. Dmitri Mendeleev succeeded making all the elements into the right order in accordance to their atomic number.
Dame
what is the Greek name for calcium
different types of wave
longitudinal and transverse waves
Ravindra
a gun is kept in the state that it cannot move anywhere and the bullet is fired. Then what is the effect on the velocity of bullet and KE of gun ?
want is meant by the term solar system
it refers to the sun and all heavenly bodies revolving around it.
Danie
excatly...for sure
Arzoodan
in addition to Danie's, a solar system is a collection of planets and their moons, asteroids, and other objects bound together by the Star's gravitational force directly or indirectly.
Galiwango
what is meant by total internal reflection
what iw meant by total internal reflection
Akshay
Lorentz force?
jyotirmayee
study fibre optics. .you will get total internal reflection
Siddhansh
wha
jyotirmayee
what is Lorentz force?
jyotirmayee
a ray of light traveling at an angle of incidence greater than critical angle from denser to rarer medium is totally reflected back into the denser medium is called total internal reflaction
Manoj
motion in strat line where is this chapter
motion in straight line is kinematic's part
Ritik
yea
Manoj
this defination isn't correct
Arzoodan
motion in one dimension
Anil
what is Lorentz force?
what is maxwell electromagnetic law?
jyotirmayee
at what angle should the two forces 2p and root 2p acts so that the resultant force is p root 10
Akshay
what's the working difference between a dynamo and a pump?
a dynamo is basically a dc generator while pump is usually equipped with a motor
vedanth
a dynamo converts mechanical energy to electrical while a pump is opposite to that
vedanth
nice
Piyali
okay
Friday
why sea water looks bluish?
cuz the sky is blue...
Mehdi
you see the reflexion of the "blue" sky in the water
Mehdi
somewhere sea water turns green why?
Piyali
never seen bro... are u sure ?
Mehdi
ur answer was correct but due to the presence of phytoplankton color can be changed near the shore
Piyali
waaaww... you re awesome
Mehdi
because of the reflection of the sky
Friday
rays coming from the sun consist of all 7 colours ie.VIBGYOR. when the ray strikes surface of water,all colors gets absorbed by it except blue which gets reflected by it.so we find the sea water appearing bluish
Ritik
how can someone identify sea water from rain water
Oniyide
i think it's not possible as because rainwater consists of water from all kind of water bodies ie.lakes,seas etc but u can predict if u have a sea nearby ur home or city
Ritik
i need solutions of unuversity pbysucs volume 1
me too
Nirupam
Help us if anyone knows
Nirupam
bring questions
john
actually if u wanted whole book solution then u should buy the solution book
jyotirmayee
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Nirupam
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jyotirmayee
Kota Rajasthan
Nirupam
so strange,,,,,r u preparing for pmt,,,?
jyotirmayee
for IIT
Nirupam
then concern near book store
jyotirmayee
in Rajasthan
jyotirmayee
jyotirmayee
Nirupam
its fine,,most welcome
jyotirmayee
what is three dimensional coordinate system?
considering the change of vectors in all three dimensions of space
vedanth
direction co-sign of vector questions
opposite
Sonu
opposite mean
Vipin
what is the different between action and reaction?
action is external force. Reaction exists because of the external action. Reaction is mostly an internal force
Yoblaze
The difference is said in the word itself. There is no existance of reaction without an application of action. So action occur first then reaction. Reaction may produce in body itself or to other body i.e., it may be internal or external.
Amalesh
or we can say , reaction is the result of action
Ritik