Angular momentum and when center of rotation is changed

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the behavior of angular momentum, tangential velocity, and centripetal force when the center of rotation is altered. Participants explore theoretical implications and practical scenarios involving rotating systems, particularly focusing on how these quantities are affected by changes in the pivot point or center of rotation.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions how angular momentum and related quantities behave when the center of rotation changes, specifically in a system with a rotating hinged arm and a weight at the end.
  • Another participant asserts that angular momentum must be conserved, but notes that the nature of the change in the center of rotation could affect the system's behavior, particularly when forces are applied.
  • A third participant introduces the idea that angular momentum can be decomposed into spin and orbital components, indicating that the spin component remains constant while the orbital component changes with the pivot shift.
  • Further clarification is provided that total angular momentum is conserved in any inertial reference frame, but its value can differ based on the chosen reference frame.
  • There is a suggestion that angular momentum should be measured with respect to the origin of a reference frame rather than the joints of a system, which may not be in an inertial frame.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree that angular momentum is relative to the center of rotation and that it can be conserved in inertial frames. However, there are competing views on how changes in the center of rotation specifically affect the angular momentum and whether the same formulas apply under these conditions.

Contextual Notes

Participants express uncertainty regarding the application of angular momentum formulas when the center of rotation is altered, and there are unresolved questions about the implications of applying forces to the system during such changes.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to students and professionals in physics, particularly those studying dynamics, rotational motion, and the principles of angular momentum in various reference frames.

Strang
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Hello.

The problem is this, what happens to angular momentum, tangential velocity and centripetal force when you change the center of rotation.
For example, if we have rotating hinged arm, weight at the end, with certain angular momentum and tangential speed etc. which then gets stopped at hinge, but the 2nd part of the hinge can still rotate thus giving half the radius and a different center of rotation.

Normaly, if you decrease radius (for example weight at the end of the string and you pull the string decreasing radius) you can assume there´s no torque and because of that L=mrv, L/m=rv and from there see that radius and velocity are inversely proportionate.

As far as i know the angular momentum is always relative to center of rotation, so when the center of rotation shifts, can you still use the above formula and others like it, or does something weird happen? Intuition says it´s the same, but i haven´t been able to find proper source to prove it. So does anyone know a site/book/thing where it´s discussed?
 
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Angular momentum has to be conserved, but I guess it depends on how you "change" the center of rotation.
Strang said:
As far as i know the angular momentum is always relative to center of rotation, so when the center of rotation shifts, can you still use the above formula and others like it, or does something weird happen?
If the system is moving in constant uniform motion, then nothing weird would happen. But if you apply a force to accelerate the system, it would probably change.
 
Angular momentum is different around different pivots.
You can decompose the total angular momentum into a rotation around the center of mass (classical spin angular momentum) and an orbital angular momentum. The spin part of the angular momentum stays the same when you shift around the pivot, but the orbital part will change, since that part is given by
##\mathbf{L}_o = \mathbf{R}_{cm} \times \mathbf{P}_{cm}##
 
To clarify, total angular momentum is conserved in any inertial reference frame, measured relative to the origin of the inertial reference frame. It has different values in different inertial reference frames.

You should measure angular momentum with respect to the origin of a reference frame, not with respect to the joints in a system (which may be moving in a non-inertial motion).
 

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