moment of inertia

American  

noun

Physics.

1. the sum of the products of the mass and the square of the perpendicular distance to the axis of rotation of each particle in a body rotating about an axis.

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moment of inertia British  

noun

1.  I.  the tendency of a body to resist angular acceleration, expressed as the sum of the products of the mass of each particle in the body and the square of its perpendicular distance from the axis of rotation

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moment of inertia Scientific  

/ mō′mənt /

1. A measure of a body's resistance to angular acceleration, equal to the product of the mass of the body and the square of its distance from the axis of rotation.

2. See also angular momentum torque

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Etymology

Origin of moment of inertia

First recorded in 1820–30

Example Sentences

To do this, felines exploit the physical laws of classical mechanics: by placing their front paws close to their body, they reduce their moment of inertia.

From Scientific American • Jul. 24, 2023

They stretch their legs to create as large a moment of inertia as possible.

From Scientific American • Jul. 24, 2023

In the next image, her rate of spin increases greatly when she pulls in her arms, decreasing her moment of inertia.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

As we would expect, an object that has a large moment of inertia I , such as Earth, has a very large angular momentum.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

For if the rod be halved the moment of inertia is one-fourth, and if the suspending fibre is made finer so that the torsion couple per radian is also one-fourth the time remains the same.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 4 "Grasshopper" to "Greek Language" by Various