Objective: Determine the moment of inertia for various test bodies.
A body’s moment of inertia around an axis of rotation depends on how the mass of the object is distributed with respect to the axis. This will be investigated for a dumbbell, which has two weights symmetrically aligned either side of the axis, for a circular wooden disc, a wooden sphere and both solid and hollow cylinders. The period of oscillation of the test bodies is dependent on the mass distribution and the effective radius of the object.