A child is standing with folded hands at the centre of a platform rota...
To understand why the kinetic energy of the system becomes K/2 when the child stretches his arms, let's break down the problem step by step.
1. Initial Situation:
- Initially, the child is standing with folded hands at the center of a rotating platform.
- The platform is rotating about its central axis, which means it has angular velocity.
- The child's arms are close to the body, so the moment of inertia of the system is relatively small.
- The kinetic energy of the system is denoted as K.
2. Stretching Arms:
- When the child stretches his arms, the distribution of mass changes.
- The moment of inertia of the system depends on the mass distribution and the distance of the mass elements from the axis of rotation.
- By stretching his arms, the child increases the moment of inertia of the system, effectively doubling it.
3. Conservation of Angular Momentum:
- According to the law of conservation of angular momentum, the angular momentum of a system remains constant unless acted upon by an external torque.
- In this case, since no external torque is acting on the system, the angular momentum remains constant.
4. Relationship between Angular Momentum and Moment of Inertia:
- The angular momentum of a rotating system is given by the product of the moment of inertia and the angular velocity.
- Since the angular momentum is conserved, if the moment of inertia doubles, the angular velocity must halve.
5. Relationship between Kinetic Energy and Angular Velocity:
- The kinetic energy of a rotating system is given by the formula K = (1/2)Iω^2, where I is the moment of inertia and ω is the angular velocity.
- As the angular velocity decreases, the kinetic energy of the system also decreases.
- The relationship between kinetic energy and angular velocity is quadratic, so halving the angular velocity will result in the kinetic energy being halved as well.
Therefore, when the child stretches his arms, the moment of inertia of the system doubles, leading to the angular velocity halving. As a result, the kinetic energy of the system becomes K/2.
A child is standing with folded hands at the centre of a platform rota...
According to the principle of conservation of angular momentum,
Iω = constant
As I is doubled, w becomes half.
Now K.E. of rotation,
Since I is doubled and ω is halved, therefore
K.E. will become half i.e. k/2.
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