Unit 5: Rotation and Simple Harmonic Motion

     There are many different types of motion that physicists study. Plenty of objects in the real world have one and two-dimensional motions like those we have studied so far in this course (cars and cannonballs, for example). But there are many other classes of motion.
     We say that objects "translate" when the move along straight line paths, but they "rotate" when the spin around an internal axis. Many objects, like the Earth or a gyroscope, rotate around internal axes, so it's important to understand how these rotations can be described.
     Additionally, we can mathematically describe the many objects in our world that undergo "periodic" motion, ie., repetitive motion or oscillations. For example, objects that dangle from springs, the pistons in the cylinders of your car, or the mass on the end of a simple pendulum, all undergo a type of oscillation called "Simple Harmonic Motion." In the case of a simple pendulum the motion is only approximate SHM (we will see why this is true shortly). This sounds like a lot to take in, but if you internalize it one concept at a time, I'm sure you will get into the swing of it...no pun intended.

Suggested timeframe: 3 weeks

Big Ideas:
1. Translational and rotational mechanics are described with corollary parameters
2. Torque causes angular acceleration
3. Many systems exhibit periodic motion
4. A simple pendulum exhibits approximate simple harmonic motion