Moment of Inertia of a Triangle

Purpose: The purpose of the lab was to use the angular acceleration of a rotating disk system in order to find the moment of inertia of a uniform triangle on top of the system.

Procedure: In order to check our answer with the final one we get, we decided to start by symbolically calculating the moment of inertia of the uniform triangle. For the lab we had to calculate both when the triangle was up and when it was on its side, both around a center of where there was a hole in the middle of the triangle. We then would use a spinning uniform disk system with a hanging mass at one end in order to find the moment of inertia of the triangle by using the torque of the system. 

A representation of how the system is supposed to look like is shown below.

Data: The first graph we got was by spinning the triangle when it was on its side.

The second graph was when the triangle was standing up. Both gave us a different angular acceleration.

Calculations; Below is how we got the moment of inertia of the triangle by using the parallel axis theorem.

After getting the angular acceleration by using the spinning disk system and Logger Pro we used torque to solve for the moment of inertia of the uniform triangle.

Summary: The overall lab was a success because the calculated moment of inertia was close to the experimental moment of inertia. The error could have been because there might have been some friction between the disks and some air resistance.