Rotational Inertia of T-shaped Rods

Rotational Inertia of T-shaped Rods#

Four ‘T’s are made from two identical rods of equal mass and length. The ‘T’s are rotated about various axes indicated by the dashed lines in the figures below.

Part 1#

For which of the cases below is the rotational inertia at a maximum?

Four Ts with different rotation axes.
Long Description of image: Four Ts with different rotation axes.
All four figures show an inverted 'T'.
In Figure (a), the dashed line is horizontal and is located at the top of the inverted 'T'.
In Figure (b), the dashed line is horizontal and is located at the bottom of the inverted 'T'.
In Figure (c), the dashed line is vertical and is located at the middle of the inverted 'T'.
In Figure (d), the dashed line is vertical and located at the left of the inverted 'T'.

Long description ends.

Answer Section#

  • Figure (a)

  • Figure (b)

  • Figure (c)

  • Figure (d)

Attribution#

Problem is licensed under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
The Creative Commons 4.0 license requiring attribution-BY, non-commercial-NC, and share-alike-SA license.