The most general equation for rotation of a rigid body in three dimensions about an arbitrary origin O with axes x, y, z is
where the moment of inertia tensor, , is given by
Given that Euler's rotation theorem states that there is always an instantaneous axis of rotation, the angular velocity, , can be given by a vector over this axis
where is a set of mutually perpendicular unit vectors fixed in a reference frame.
Rotating a rigid body is equivalent to rotating a Poinsot ellipsoid.
Similarly, the angular momentum for a system of particles with linear momenta pi and distances ri from the rotation axis is defined
For a rigid body rotating with angular velocity ω about the rotation axis (a unit vector), the velocity vector may be written as a vector cross product
Where angular velocity vector
is the shortest vector from the rotation axis to the point mass.
Substituting the formula for into the definition of yields
Where we have introduced the special case that the position vectors of all particles are perpendicular to the rotation axis (e.g., a flywheel): .
The torque is defined as the rate of change of the angular momentum
If I is constant (because the inertia tensor is the identity, because we work in the intrinsically frame, or because the torque is driving the rotation around the same axis so that I is not changing) then we may write
Where α is called the angular acceleration (or rotational acceleration) about the rotation axis.
Notice that if I is not constant in the external reference frame (i.e. the three main axes of the body are different) then we cannot take the I outside the derivate. In these cases we can havetorque-free precession.
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