Two uniform circular discs having the same mass and the same thickness but different radii are made from…

Two uniform circular discs having the same mass and the same thickness but different radii are made from different materials. The disc with the smaller rotational inertia is
  1. the one made from the more dense material
  2. the one made from the less dense material
  3. the disc with the larger angular velocity
  4. the disc with the larger torque

Solution

Moment of inertia of circular disc $=\frac{1}{2} M R^2$ $\begin{aligned} =\frac{1}{2} M\left(\frac{M}{\pi t \rho}\right) & =\frac{1}{2} \frac{M^2}{\pi t \rho} \\ (\text { As } M & \left.=\pi R^2 t \rho \Rightarrow R^2=\frac{M}{\pi t \rho}\right) \end{aligned}$ If mass and thickness are same, then $I \propto \frac{1}{\rho}$ So, the disc made from more dense material will have smaller rotational inertia.

Asked in: AP EAMCET 2011

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