Applications of angular momentum

1. The spinning volunteer

A student seated on a stool that can rotate freely about a vertical axis. The student who has been
set into rotation at an angular speed , holds two dumbbells in his outstretched hands. When he moves
dumbbells closer to
speed increases from
then slow down by

the rotational axis, his angular

1 to 2 . The student can

extending his arms once more.

2. The springboard diver

A diver leaves the springboard with an angular momentum L about an axis through her center of
mass. By pulling her arms and legs into the closed tuck position, he can reduce his rotational inertia and
can increase his angular speed so that he can be able to perform multiple somersaults. At the end he
increases his rotational inertia thus slows her rotation rate.

3. A spacecraft orientation
It represents a spacecraft with a rigidly mounted flywheel, which is used for orientation control.
Initially the total angular momentum is zero. To change the orientation of the spacecraft, the flywheel is
made to rotate. The spacecraft will start to rotate in the opposite sense to maintain the angular momentum
of the system at zero. When the flywheel is brought to rest the spacecraft will also stop rotating but will
have changed it orientation.