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Conservation of angular momentum
Mass, velocity and shape of an object


At the webpages of Light and Matter, composed by Benjamin Crowell, you may find a nice explanation on how angular momentum relates to the mass, the velocity and the shape of an object. He describes an experiment in which a sticky, plasticine-like substance, called putty, is thrown at an open door in section 15.1. When it hits the door, the door will recoil and start rotating. From that experiment he concludes that angular momentum of a pointlike particle is proportional to its mass, its velocity and its distance of impact.
An introduction to angular momentum is elaborated by WikipediA. A more elaborate page on angular momentum can be found also at WikipediA, which furthermore has a chapter on the Conservation of angular momentum.
Moments of inertia for various shapes can be found again at WikipediA.


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