Useful Moment of Inertia Formulas

Note: In the table below, the overbar indicates the moment of inertia is taken about an axis that
passes through the centroid, denoted as C. Parallel axis theorems are:

I x I x Ad 2 I y I y Ad I xy I xy Ax y
2

Here, A is the area of the shape, d is the distance from the centroidal axis to the desired parallel
axis, and x y are the x and y distances of the centroid from the origin of the desired coordinate
frame.

Rectangle: y y`
I x 1 bh 3 I x 1 bh 3 b/2
12 3
I y 1 b 3 h I y 1 b3h
12 3 h C x`
I xy 0 Area = bh h/2
x
b
Triangle:
s
I x 1 bh 3 I x 1 bh 3
36 12
b(b 2 s ) h 2 1 h
I xy Area bh C x`
72 2 h/3
x
b

Circle:
y
I x I y 1 r 4
4
I xy 0 r C x
Area r 2

Semi-circle: y
I x I y 1 r 4 I x ' 8 r 4 4r/3
8 8 9 r C x`
I xy 0 r 2 x
Area
2

Ellipse: y
I x 1 ab 3 I y 1 a 3b
4 4
r C x
I xy 0
Area ab b
a