Parallel Axis Theorem

Let denote the moment of inertia for a rotation axis passing through the center of mass, and let denote the moment of inertia for a rotation axis parallel to the first but a distance away from it. Then the parallel axis theorem says that

where denotes the total mass. Thus, the added inertia due to displacement by meters away from the centroidal axis is equal to that of a point mass rotating a distance from the center of rotation.

---

Previous: Perpendicular Axis Theorem
Next: Stretch Rule

Order a Hardcopy of Physical Audio Signal Processing

---

About the Author: Julius Orion Smith III
Julius Smith's background is in electrical engineering (BS Rice 1975, PhD Stanford 1983). He is presently Professor of Music and Associate Professor (by courtesy) of Electrical Engineering at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), teaching courses and pursuing research related to signal processing applied to music and audio systems. See http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/ for details.