WOLFRAM|DEMONSTRATIONS PROJECT

Angular Momentum of a Rotating Rigid Body

​
height
0.1
radius
0.1
u
0
v
0
time
0.
axis labels
vector labels
The angular momentum
L
of a rigid body with angular velocity
ω
is given by
L=I·ω
, where
I
is the inertia tensor. This Demonstration shows the rotation of an axially symmetric ellipsoid rotating about a fixed angular velocity vector
ω
. The body axes
e
1
,
e
2
,
e
3
(indicated by the red, green, and blue spheres) and the angular momentum
L
rotate as functions of time. The space axes
x
,
y
,
z
are indicated by the red, green, and blue arrows. The body’s height and radius can be adjusted, as can the angular velocity
ω={sinucosv,sinusinv,cosu}
.