How to derive the formula for moment of inertia of polygon?

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on deriving the formula for the moment of inertia of a polygon about its centroid, specifically referencing a formula provided by user @aridno. A dead link from @chris23 was mentioned, which previously contained a derivation of this formula. A suggestion was made to use Green's Theorem to derive the area and moments of a closed polygon by connecting points with straight-line segments. The user ultimately expressed gratitude for the hint and confirmed they successfully worked out the derivation. This highlights the collaborative nature of problem-solving in physics forums.
trytodoit
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Sorry to bring this question up again.

@aridno provides a nice formula of the moment of inertia I about the centroid in https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/calculating-polygon-inertia.25293/ as:

$$
I=\sum_{n=1}^{N}\frac{\rho}{12}||\vec{P}_{n+1}\times\vec{P}_{n}||(\vec{P}_{n+1}^{2}+\vec{P}_{n+1}\cdot\vec{P}_{n}+\vec{P}_{n}^{2})
$$

in https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/moment-of-inertia-of-a-polygon.43071/ , @chris23 provides a link for the derivation, but the link is dead.

So, can someone give me a hint on how to derive this equation?
 
Mathematics news on Phys.org
trytodoit said:
Sorry to bring this question up again.

@aridno provides a nice formula of the moment of inertia I about the centroid in https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/calculating-polygon-inertia.25293/ as:

$$
I=\sum_{n=1}^{N}\frac{\rho}{12}||\vec{P}_{n+1}\times\vec{P}_{n}||(\vec{P}_{n+1}^{2}+\vec{P}_{n+1}\cdot\vec{P}_{n}+\vec{P}_{n}^{2})
$$

in https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/moment-of-inertia-of-a-polygon.43071/ , @chris23 provides a link for the derivation, but the link is dead.

So, can someone give me a hint on how to derive this equation?

You can apply Green's Theorem in the plane to derive the regular formulas for calculating the area and first and second moments of area for the general closed polygon.
You assume that the polygon is described by a set of points connected with straight-line segments and go from there, using the definitions of area and the moments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygon [for calculating area and centroids]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_moment_of_area
 
  • Like
Likes trytodoit
@https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/how-to-derive-the-formula-for-moment-of-inertia-of-polygon.809203/members/steamking.301881/ Thanks for your hint! I worked it out.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. In Dirac’s Principles of Quantum Mechanics published in 1930 he introduced a “convenient notation” he referred to as a “delta function” which he treated as a continuum analog to the discrete Kronecker delta. The Kronecker delta is simply the indexed components of the identity operator in matrix algebra Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/what-exactly-is-diracs-delta-function/ by...
Suppose ,instead of the usual x,y coordinate system with an I basis vector along the x -axis and a corresponding j basis vector along the y-axis we instead have a different pair of basis vectors ,call them e and f along their respective axes. I have seen that this is an important subject in maths My question is what physical applications does such a model apply to? I am asking here because I have devoted quite a lot of time in the past to understanding convectors and the dual...
Thread 'Imaginary Pythagoras'
I posted this in the Lame Math thread, but it's got me thinking. Is there any validity to this? Or is it really just a mathematical trick? Naively, I see that i2 + plus 12 does equal zero2. But does this have a meaning? I know one can treat the imaginary number line as just another axis like the reals, but does that mean this does represent a triangle in the complex plane with a hypotenuse of length zero? Ibix offered a rendering of the diagram using what I assume is matrix* notation...
Back
Top