Rigid-Body Motion
Definitions
- Kinematics: The study of a body's motion without regard to its mass or applied forces.
- Rigid Body: A rigid body has size and may rotate as well as translate.
Types of motion
- Pure translation: A body only translates with no rotation.
- Pure rotation: A body rotates about a fixed axis.
- General planar motion: A body rotates and translates.
Motion characteristics
- Angular position: (θ) Angular position relative to an inertial coordinate axis. Similar to how θ was measured in polar coordinates.
- Angular velocity: (ω) How fast a body is rotating.
- Angular acceleration: (α) How fast a body's rotation rate is increasing or decreasing.