A large bug of mass 5.0 g lands on the outside edge of a DVD*. The DVD has mass 9.0 g and radius 6.0 cm.
*DVDs are still a thing, right? Or, at least I expect that most of my 15-18 year old students know what a DVD is without further explanation. Or, I'm an old man.
I use this setup to introduce newton's second law for rotation, and the additive nature of rotational inertia... and then to discuss conservation of angular momentum.
(a) Does the bug's presence significantly affect the rotational inertia of the DVD?
By itself, the DVD is a disk, with rotational inertia (1/2)MR2. That gives 160 g*cm2 as the disk's inertia.
The bug adds its rotational inertia algebraically. The bug should be treated as a point object, whose rotational inertia is MR2. That gives 180 g*cm2 as the bug's inertia.
The rotational inertia of the bug-DVD system is then 340 g*cm2. The addition of the bug nearly doubles the DVD's rotational inertia; thus the presence of the bug is significant.
(b) Initially the bug and DVD are rotating at a constant angular speed. Then, the bug moves to a new position 3.0 cm from the DVD's center. Explain why and how the DVD's rotational speed changes.
No external torques about the center are exerted on the bug-DVD system ('cause no net force at all acts). Thus, angular momentum is conserved.
Angular momentum is Iω When the bug approaches the center of the disk, the bug's (and thus the system's) rotational inertia decreases because the R term in the inertia formula decreases. To keep angular momentum from changing, then, the ω term must increase. The DVD will speed up its angular velocity.
(c) Does the bug exert a torque about the DVD's center as it moves toward the new position?
Tricky. There's no EXTERNAL torque on the bug-DVD system. But angular momentum can still be conserved when internal torques act. The torque of the bug on the DVD would be internal to the bug-DVD system.
Consider the DVD by itself. It changes its angular speed. So by Newton's second law of rotation, it must experience a net torque.
What can possibly provide that net torque? The weight of the DVD and the normal force of the spindle on the DVD both act through the center of the DVD; they provide no lever arm, and thus no torque.
The only other possible provider of torque is the bug. But how, in terms of torque equaling force times lever arm, can the bug do that?
Since the bug rotates with the DVD, a static friction force must act between the DVD and the bug. That friction force acts tangent to the rotation of the disk, and thus has a lever arm with respect to the disk's center.
Since the DVD's rotational inertia remains constant and its angular velocity increases, the angular momentum increases. Since the angular momentum of the DVD increases, an external torque must be applied to the DVD. Like you said, this external torque must come from the bug.
ReplyDeleteHowever, one would assume that if the bug is walking in toward the center then the net force on the bug is toward the center, along the radius which would cause zero torque (which is not true, but seemingly reasonable). So, I made the following diagram to show that the force exerted on the bug as it spirals in toward the center is not parallel with the radius (and so the reaction torque on the DVD is also non-zero).
I can't post pictures here, but here is a link to my diagram:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1BxD4-5E0H0UE1KYms2aTE1cVU/view?usp=sharing
I really encourage you to click through to the picture. Michael shows beautifully how the force of the arms on the torso has a lever arm with respect to the center of rotation. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. My class and I were really arguing over how the bug that is moving toward the center with what most of us thought was a non perpendicular radius to the force would NOT exert a force but then we knew omega increased. The diagram was great. Thanks so much for sharing with us.
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