Question

Jessica stretches her arms out 0.6 m from the center of her body while holding a 2 kg mass in each hand. she then spins around on an ice rink at 1.1 m/s.
a. what is the combined angular momentum of the masses?

Answer 1

Angular momentum is the measure of the amount of rotation of the body. It is the product of the moment of inertia and the angular velocity. The moment of inertia has the equation I=mr^2, where m is the mass and r is the radius of the circle. In this case, the radius is 0.6 m. Then, I = 2kg * (0.6)^2 = 0.72 kg-m2/s2.

The angular velocity on the other hand is the product of linear velocity and the radius. The equation is ω = rv, where v is the linear velocity. Therefore, ω = 0.6*1.1 = 0.66 rad/s

Therefore, the angular momentum is 

= 0.72 kg-m2/s2*0.66 rad/s
= 0.48 kg-m^2/s