Lecture 34: Principal Axes of Inertia

Weve spent the last few lectures deriving the general

expressions for L and Trot in terms of the inertia tensor
Both expressions would be a great deal simpler if the
inertia tensor was diagonal. That is, if:
I ij = I i ij
or
I1

I= 0
0

I2
0

0
I3

Then we could write

I ij j =

Li =
j

1
Trot =
2

I i ij j = I ii
j

i, j

1
I iji j =
2

i, j

1
I i iji j =
2

I ii2
i

 Weve already seen that the elements of the inertia tensor

transform under rotations
So perhaps we can rotate to a set of axes for which the
tensor (for a given rigid body) is diagonal
These are called the principal axes of the body
All the rotational problems you did in first-year physics dealt
with rotation about a principal axis thats why the
equations looked simpler.

If a body is rotating solely about a principal axis (call it the

i axis) then:
Li = I ii , or L = I i
If we can find a set of principal axes for a body, we call the
three non-zero inertia tensor elements the principal
moments of inertia

Finding the Principal Moments

In general, its easiest to first determine the principal
moments, and then find the principal axes
We know that if were rotating about a principal axis, we
have:
L=I
A principal moment
I ij j also holds. So,

But the general relation Li =

j

L1 = I 1 = I111 + I12 2 + I133

L2 = I 2 = I 211 + I 22 2 + I 233
L3 = I 3 = I 311 + I 32 2 + I 333

 Rearranging the equations gives:

( I11 I ) 1 + I12 2 + I133 = 0

I 211 + ( I 22 I ) 2 + I 233 = 0
I 311 + I 32 2 + ( I 33 I ) 3 = 0
Linear algebra fact:
We can consider this as a system of equations for the i
Such a system has a solution only if the determinant of the
coefficients is zero

In other words, we need:

I11 I

I12

I 21
I 31

I 22 I
I 32

I13
I 23 = 0
I 33 I

 The determinant results in a cubic equation for I

The three solutions are the three principal moments of
inertia for the body (one corresponding to each principal
axis)
And this brings us the resolution of the apparent
contradiction between freshman-level physics, in which
there were three moments of inertia, and this course, where
we needed 6 numbers
In the earlier course, only rotations about principal axes were
considered!

Finding the Principal Axes

Now all thats left to do is find the principal axes. We do
this by solving the system of equations for i
Using one of the possible values of I call it I1
This will give the direction of the first principal axis

It turns out that we wont be able to find all three

components
But we can determine the ratio 1 : 2 : 3
And thats enough to figure out the direction of the first
principle axis (in whatever coordinate system were using)

Example: Dumbbell
Consider the same dumbbell that appeared last lecture, and
define the coordinate system as follows:
( b, b,0)
m

m
2b 2
I = m 2b 2
0

2b 2
2b 2
0

(b, b,0)

0
1 1 0
0 = 2b 2 m 1 1 0
4b 2
0 0 2

 So the equation we need to solve is:

1 I
1
0
1 1 I
0 =0
0
0
2I

( 2 I ) (1 I )2 1 = 0
(2 I )[I 2 2I ] = 0
I (2 I ) ( I 2) = 0
I = ( 0, 2 or 2 ) 2mb2
Lets find the principal axis associated with I = 0:

1 + 2 = 0
1 + 2 = 0
43 = 0

 So the ratio of the angular momentum components in our

coordinate system when the object it rotating about the
principal axis with I = 0 is:
1 : 2 : 3 = 1: 1: 0
meaning the axis is defined by the vector:
r = ex e y
In other words, along the axis of the dumbbell
If an object has an axis of symmetry, that axis is
always a principal axis
What about the other principal axes?
The axes associated with I = 4mb2 are:

1 + 2 = 0

1 2 = 0
0=0

 Theres not much information in those equations!

For example, the z component could be anything

This means that any two axes perpendicular to the axis of

the dumbbell can be taken as principal axes
Note that the principal axes one finds can depend both on
the shape of the body and on the point about which its
rotating
Look over Examples 11.5 and 11.6 in the text
They show that one finds different principal axes for a
uniform cube depending on whether its rotating about a
corner or about the center of mass

When Can We Find Principal Axes?

We can always write down the cubic equation that one
must solve to determine the principal moments
But if we want to interpret these as physically meaningful
quantities, the roots of that cubic have to be real
Recall that in general, cubics can have two complex roots

Fortunately, were not in the general case here

The inertia tensor is both real and symmetric in
particular, it satisfies:
I ij = I ij*
Matrices that satisfy this restriction are called Hermitian
For such matrices, the principal moments can always be
found, and they are always real (see proof in text)
This mathematics will come up again in Quantum Mechanics
Principal Moments Eigenvalues
Principal Axes Eigenfunctions