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chickendude
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Homework Statement
Find the moment of inertia of a hollow sphere with mass m and radius R and uniform density
Homework Equations
Since the hollow sphere is an area, the density is mass divided by area, so:
[tex]I = \int r^2 dm = \frac{m}{A}\int r^2 dA[/tex]
The Attempt at a Solution
. The total area is 4pi r^2, so here is what I got
[tex]dA = 2\pi \sqrt{R^2-r^2}dr[/tex]
[tex]I = \frac{m}{4\pi R^2} \int_{-R}^{R} r^2(2\pi\sqrt{R^2-r^2})dr[/tex]
[tex]I = \frac{m}{R^2} \int_{0}^{R} r^2\sqrt{R^2-r^2}dr[/tex]
From here I made the substitution [tex]r = R\sin{\theta}[/tex] and got
[tex]I = mR^2 \int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{2}} \sin^2\theta\cos^2\theta d\theta[/tex]
And that evaluated to pi/16, which brings me to my problemthe correct answer is supposed to be [tex]I = \frac{2mR^2}{5}[/tex]
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