Errata

ME3112 Mechanics of Machine

Slide 14 of lecture 3
The no 2 should be removed from the
equation (highlighted in red).

A Swinging Plate
b

A uniform square plate of length 2b for each side

and mass m is hinged at O. The centroidal
moment of inertia of the plate is
IG = (1/12)m((2b)2+ (2b)2 = (2/3) mb2.

G
b

The moment of inertia of the plate about the

hinge O is (Parallel Axis Theorem)
IO = (2/3) mb2 + mb2 = (5/3)mb2.

Equation of Motion
- continue

The equation of motion can be rewritten as:

d2/dt2 + (mgb/IO) sin = 0
Defining n2 = mgb/IO = 3g/5b ,
the equation of motion is
d2/dt2 + n2 sin = 0
For small , sin can be approximated by . The equation of motion becomes:
d2/dt2 + n2 = 0
The solution has the same form as the solution for the motion of simple
pendulum.
Period T = 2/(3g/5b)1/2
4

Webpage on parallel axis theorem

In general, for a rigid body with mass m and
centre of mass at G shown in the above
diagram, if AA' and BB' are two parallal axes
with AA' passing through the centre of mass
and d is the separation between the two axes,
IBB' = IAA' + md2
IAA' is also known as the centroidal moment of
inertia.

AA passes through the centre of mass not BB