Question

A spinning wheel has a rotational inertia of 2 kg•m². It has an angular velocity of 6.0 rad/s. An average counterclockwise torque of 5.0 N•m is applied, and continues for 4.0 s. What is the change in angular momentum of the wheel?

Answer 1

Answer:

$-20.0 kg m^2/s$

Explanation:

The angular momentum of an object in rotation is given by

$L=I \omega$

where

I is the moment of inertia

$\omega$ is the angular speed

In this problem, initially we have

$I=2 kg m^2$ is the moment of inertia of the wheel

$\omega_i = 6.0 rad/s$ is the initial angular speed

So the initial angular momentum is

$L_i = I\omega_i = (2)(6.0)=12 kg m^2/s$

Later, a counterclockwise torque of

$\tau=-5.0 Nm$ is applied

So the angular acceleration of the wheel is:

$\alpha = \frac{\tau}{I}=\frac{-5.0}{2}=-2.5 rad/s^2$ in the direction opposite to the initial rotation.

As a result, the final angular velocity of the wheel will be:

$\omega_f = \omega_i + \alpha t$

where

t = 4.0 is the time interval

Solving,

$\omega_f = +6.0 +(-2.5)(4.0)=-4 rad/s$

which means that now the wheel is rotating in the counterclockwise direction.

Therefore, the new angular momentum of the wheel is:

$L_f = I\omega_f =(2)(-4.0)=-8.0 kg m^2/s$

So, the change in angular momentum is:

$\Delta L=L_f - L_i = (-8.0-(12))=-20.0 kg m/s^2$