What is Moment of Inertia (MOI)?
What is Moment of Inertia (MOI)?Answer: “Moment of inertia,” or MOI, is a property of physics that indicates the relative difference in how easy or difficult it will be to set any object in motion about a defined axis of rotation. The higher the MOI of an object, the more force will have to be applied to set that object in a rotational motion. Conversely, the lower the MOI, the less force needed to make the object rotate about an axis. To understand MOI, think of a spinning ice skater. At the beginning of the spin, the skater extends her arms and the rotation speed is slow. As the skater pulls her arms in closer to her body, the speed of the spin greatly increases. Thus when the arms are extended, the skater s Moment of Inertia is very high, and the result is a slower spin because the high MOI of the skater is resisting the speed of rotation. Conversely, the reason the spin speed increases when the skater pulls in her arms is that as the arms get closer to her body, the skater’s MOI fa
