As we have discussed, one focus of physics is motion. However, so far we have examined only the motion of translation, in which an object moves along a straight or curved line, as in Fig. 10-1a. We now turn to the motion of rotation, in which an object turns about an axis, as in Fig. 10-1b.
The number of times you encounter rotation in everyday life may be uncountable. You see it in nearly every machine, you use it every time you open a beverage can with a pull tab, and you pay to experience it every time you go to an amusement park. Rotation is the key to many fun activities, such as hitting a long drive in golf (the ball needs to rotate in order for the air to keep it aloft longer) and throwing a curveball in baseball (the ball needs to rotate in order for the air to push it left or right). Rotation is also the key to more serious matters, such as metal failure in aging airplanes.
We begin our discussion of rotation by defining the variables for the motion, just as we did for translation in Chapter 2.
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