3D Angular Momentum of a Particle

particle velocity

V

x

5

V

y

5

V

z

(-z)

0

particle position

P

x

5

P

y

5

P

z

0

Angular momentum about a point

P

is calculated as

L

P

=



r

×m

v

, where

m

is the mass of the particle,



r

is the position vector from point

P

to the particle, and

v

is its velocity. This Demonstration shows the interaction between position, velocity, and angular momentum about the origin. It also shows that angular momentum is a vector quantity, with both direction and magnitude. For simplicity, assume a mass of 0.5 kg, and limit the velocity components to the range 0 to 10 m/s.