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Moment of force (often just moment) is the tendency of a force to twist or rotate an object; see the article torque for details. This is an important, basic concept in engineering and physics. A moment is valued mathematically as the product of the force and the moment arm. The moment arm is the perpendicular distance from the point of rotation, to the line of action of the force. The moment may be thought of as a measure of the tendency of the force to cause rotation about an imaginary axis through a point.[1] (Note: In mechanical and civil engineering, "moment" and "torque" have different meanings, while in physics they are synonyms. See the discussion in the "torque" article, or the article couple (mechanics).)

The moment of a force can be calculated about any point and not just the points in which the line of action of the force is perpendicular. Image A shows the components, the force F, and the moment arm, x when they are perpendicular to one another. When the force is not perpendicular to the point of interest, such as Point O in Images B and C, the magnitude of the Moment, M of a vector F about the point O is where is the vector from point O to the position where quantity F is applied. represents the cross product of the vectors. [2]

Image C represents the vector components of the force in Image B. In order to determine the Moment, M of a vector F about the point O, when vector F is not perpendicular to point O, one must resolve the force F, into its horizontal and vertical components. The sum of the moments of the two components of F about the point O is :

M OF = F * sin ( ) * x + F * cos( ) * 0 The moment arm to the vertical component of F is a distance x. The moment arm to the horizontal component of F does not exist. There is no rotational force about point O due to the horizontal component of F. Thus, the moment arm distance is zero, or 0. [1] Thus M can be referred to as "the moment M with respect to the axis that goes through the point O, or simply "the moment M about point O". If O is the origin, or, informally, if the axis involved is clear from context, one often omits O and says simply moment, rather than moment about O. Therefore, the moment about point O is indeed the cross product, , since the cross product = F * x sin ( )[1]

Image A shows a moment at Point O, when the components are perpendicular to the Point O. Image B and Image C illustrate the components of a Moment at Point O, when the components are not perpendicular to point O.
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When F is the force, the moment of force is the torque as defined above. The Principle of moments is if an object is balanced then the sum of the clockwise moments about a pivot is equal to the sum of the anticlockwise moments about the same pivot. A pure moment is a special type of moment of force. See the article couple (mechanics).

Moment of inertia ( ) is analogous to mass in discussions of rotational motion. y Moment of momentum or angular momentum ( ) is the rotational analog of momentum. y Magnetic moment ( ) is a dipole moment measuring the strength and direction of a magnetic source. y Electric dipole moment is a dipole moment measuring the charge difference and direction between two or more charges. For example, the electric dipole moment between a change of -q and q separated by a distance of d is ( ) y Moment of Inertia Moment of inertia is the name given to rotational inertia, the rotational analog of mass for linear motion. It appears in the relationships for the dynamics of rotational motion. The moment of inertia must be specified with respect to a chosen axis of rotation. For a point mass the moment of inertia is just the mass times the square of perpendicular distance to the rotation axis, I = mr2. That point mass relationship becomes the basis for
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all t t i tia si any obj t can be built up from a collection of point masses.

Moment of Inerti Examples

Moment of inertia is defined wit respect to a specific rotation axis. The moment of inertia of a point mass with respect to an axis is defined as the product of the mass times the distance from the axis squared. The moment of inertia of any extended object is built up from that basic definition. The general form of the moment of inertia involves an integral.

Moment of Inertia, General Form Since the moment of inertia of an ordinary object involves a continuous distribution of mass at a
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continually varying distance from any rotation axis, the calculation of moments of inertia generally involves calculus, the discipline of mathematics which can handle such continuous variables. Since the moment of inertia of a point mass is defined by
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then the moment of inertia contribution by an infinitesmal mass element dm has the same form. This kind of mass element is called a differential element of mass and its moment of inertia is given by

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Note that the differential element of moment of inertia dI must always be defined with respect to a specific rotation axis. The sum over all these mass elements is called an integral over the mass.
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Usually, the mass element dm will be expressed in terms of the geometry of the object, so that the integration can be carried out over the object as a whole (for example, over a long uniform rod . Having called this a general form, it is probably appropriate to point out that it is a general form only for axes which may be called "principal axes", a term which includes all axes of symmetry of objects. The concept of moment of inertia for

general objects about arbitrary axes is a much more complicated subject. The moment of inertia in such cases takes the form of a mathematical tensor quantity which requires nine components to completely define it. Straight rod Cylinder Sphere

Examples of integration to get moment of inertia.

The moment of inertia of an object about a given axis describes how difficult it is to change its angular motion about that axis. Therefore, it encompasses not just how much mass the object has overall, but how far each bit of mass is from the axis. The farther out the object's mass is, the more rotational inertia the object has, and the more force is required to change its rotation rate. For example, consider two hoops, A and B, made of the same material and of equal mass. Hoop A is larger in diameter but thinner than B. It requires more effort to accelerate hoop A (change its angular velocity because its mass is distributed farther from its axis of rotation: mass that is farther out from that axis must, for a given angular velocity, move more quickly than mass closer in. So in this case, hoop A has a larger moment of inertia than hoop B.

Divers reducing their moments of inertia to increase their rates of rotation The moment of inertia of an object can change if its shape changes. Figure skaters who begin a spin with arms outstretched provide a striking example. By pulling in their arms, they reduce their moment of inertia, causing them to spin faster (by the conservation of angular momentum). The moment of inertia has two forms, a scalar form, I, (used when the axis of rotation is specified) and a more general tensor form that does not require the axis of rotation to be specified. The scalar moment of inertia, I, (often called simply the "moment of inertia") allows a succinct analysis of many simple problems in rotational dynamics, such as objects rolling down inclines and the behavior of pulleys. For instance, while a block of any shape will slide down a frictionless decline at the same rate, rolling objects may descend at different rates, depending on their moments of inertia. A hoop will descend more slowly than a solid disk of equal mass and radius because more of its mass is located far from the axis of rotation. However, for (more complicated)

problems in which the axis of rotation can change, the scalar treatment is inadequate, and the tensor treatment must be used (although shortcuts are possible in special situations . Examples requiring such a treatment include gyroscopes, tops, and even satellites, all objects whose alignment can change. The moment of inertia is also called the mass moment of inertia (especially by mechanical engineers to avoid confusion with the second moment of area, which is sometimes called the area moment of inertia (especially by structural engineers . The easiest way to differentiate these quantities is through their units (kgm as opposed to m4 . In addition, moment of inertia should not be confused with polar moment of inertia (more specifically, polar moment of inertia of area , which is a measure of an object's ability to resist torsion (twisting only, although, mathematically, they are similar: if the solid for which the moment of inertia is being calculated has uniform thickness in the direction of the rotating axis, and also has uniform mass density, the difference between the two types of moments of inertia is a factor of mass per unit area.
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Parallel Axis Theorem

The moment of inertia of any object about an axis through its center of mass is the minimum moment of inertia for an axis in that direction in space. The moment of inertia about any axis parallel to that axis through the center of mass is given by

The expression added to the center of mass moment of inertia will be recogni ed as the moment of inertia of a point mass - the moment of inertia about a parallel axis is the center of mass moment plus the moment of inertia of the entire object treated as a point mass at the center of mass.