Category Archives: Mechanics

Kinetic Energy of a Swinging Rod

Rod of length \ell and mass M swinging about a pivot. First time using Inkscape, so I went and added \theta, too.

I came across a slightly more advanced variation of this problem in a mechanics course earlier last semester, and for some reason I just couldn’t figure out how to find the kinetic energy. I found it instructive to go through a quick calculation…

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