Act Four: The moment (of inertia) of turning

What the heck is moment of inertia?

Simply put, moment of inertia[1], or rotational inertia, is how hard something is to turn. You may have heard of Newton’s second law, which is force equals mass times acceleration. This law describes things that are moving in a straight line. Whenever we start doing turns, however, we turn towards the rotational version of it, which is, torque equals moment of inertia times angular acceleration.

Guest Posts, The Physics of BalletBelinda KusumaFebruary 12, 2024physics of dance, physics of ballet, physics, applied physics, dance, ballet mechanics, ballet world

Act three: Getting Your Balance

Have you ever watched those wonderful videos of ballerinas holding very, very long balances, and wondered, how on earth do they do that? Then, if you’re like me, do you go immediately into asking, could I ever do something like that, because just letting go of the barre in class is a struggle?

Guest Posts, The Physics of BalletBelinda KusumaOctober 10, 2023The Fifth Danceballet mechanics, ballet world, physics of ballet, movement mechanics, physics, physics of dance