The mass moment of inertia is a proportionality constant, which depends on both the body and the position of the body’s rotation axis. By measuring the rotary moment and the resulting angular acceleration, we can experimentally determine the mass moment of inertia. To do this, the TM 611 unit offers rolling experiments on an inclined plane and pendulum experiments with a physical pendulum to determine mass moments of inertia experimentally. In the rolling experiment, the inclination of the inclined plane is set through height adjustment and read on a goniometer.

A disk rolls down the track. The time and the acceleration distance are measured, and the mass moment of inertia is calculated.
To conduct the pendulum experiments, the disk is hung in a mount. The rotation axis of the disk is displaced by a specific distance from the centre of gravity. The disk is deflected and rolls back and forth in a pendulum motion. The mass moment of inertia is calculated from the measured time during the swaying, the mass and the distance to the centre of gravity (Steiner’s theorem).

Two different disks are available. The experiments are precisely aligned with spirit levels.