Lesson Plan: Moment of Inertia Physics
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to calculate the angular mass, called the moment of inertia, of rotating objects of various regular shapes.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- use the formulae for the moment of inertia of a hoop, disk, sphere, hollow sphere, rectangular prism, cylinder, rod held at its center, rod held at one end, and a point mass orbiting about an axis to calculate moments of inertia,
- compare the dimensions of different objects that have equivalent moments of inertia.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- angular displacement,
- angular velocity.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- angular momentum,
- rotational kinetic energy,
- derivations of the formula of moment of inertia for regular shapes.