Lectures on Physics has been derived from Benjamin Crowell's Light and Matter series of free introductory textbooks on physics. See the editorial for more information....

Two Theorems About Angular Momentum

With plain old momentum, p, we had the freedom to work in any inertial frame of reference we liked. The same object could have different values of momentum in two different frames, if the frames were not at rest with respect to each other. Conservation of momentum, however, would be true in either frame. As long as we employed a single frame consistently throughout a calculation, everything would work.

The same is true for angular momentum, and in addition there is an ambiguity that arises from the definition of an axis of rotation. For a wheel, the natural choice of an axis of rotation is obviously the axle, but what about an egg rotating on its side? The egg has an asymmetric shape, and thus no clearly defined geometric center. A similar issue arises for a cyclone, which does not even have a sharply defined shape, or for a complicated machine with many gears. The following theorem, the first of two presented in this section without proof, explains how to deal with this issue. Although I have put descriptive titles above both theorems, they have no generally accepted names.

the choice of axis theorem

It is entirely arbitrary what point one defines as the axis for purposes of calculating angular momentum. If a closed system's angular momentum is conserved when calculated with one choice of axis, then it will also be conserved for any other choice. Likewise, any inertial frame of reference may be used.

Colliding asteroids described with different axes

The earth spins on its own axis once a day, but simultaneously travels in its circular one-year orbit around the sun, so any given part of it traces out a complicated loopy path. It would seem difficult to calculate the earth's angular momentum, but it turns out that 112 Chapter 5 Conservation of Angular Momentum there is an intuitively appealing shortcut: we can simply add up the angular momentum due to its spin plus that arising from its center of mass's circular motion around the sun. This is a special case of the following general theorem:

the spin theorem

An object's angular momentum with respect to some outside axis A can be found by adding up two parts:

(1) The first part is the object's angular momentum found by using its own center of mass as the axis, i.e., the angular momentum the object has because it is spinning.

(2) The other part equals the angular momentum that the object would have with respect to the axis A if it had all its mass concentrated at and moving with its center of mass.

A system with its center of mass at rest

Angular momentum of a rigid object

Everyone has a strong tendency to think of the diver as rotating about his own center of mass. However, he is flying in an arc, and he also has angular momentum because of this motion.

This rigid object has angular momentum both because it is spinning about its center of mass and because it is moving through space.

Note that although the factors of 2π in this expression is peculiar to a wheel with its mass concentrated on the rim, the proportionality to m/T would have been the same for any other rigidly rotating object. Although an object with a noncircular shape does not have a radius, it is also true in general that angular momentum is proportional to the square of the object's size for fixed values of m and T. For instance doubling an object's size doubles both the v? and r factors in the contribution of each of its parts to the total angular momentum, resulting in an overall factor of four increase.

The figure shows some examples of angular momenta of various shapes rotating about their centers of mass. The equations for their angular momenta were derived using calculus, as described in my calculus-based book Simple Nature. Do not memorize these equations!

Discussion Questions

A In the example of the colliding asteroids, suppose planet A was moving toward the top of the page, at the same speed as the bottom asteroid. How would planet A's astronomers describe the angular momenta of the asteroids? Would angular momentum still be conserved?




Last Update: 2010-11-11