Q.Explain the law of conservation of angular momentum.
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Conservation of Angular Momentum
Imagine you are sitting on a spinning office chair with your arms stretched out wide. Someone gives you a gentle push to start you spinning. Now, pull your arms in tight against your chest. What happens? You spin much faster. The moment you stretch your arms back out, you slow down again.
That is not magic. It is a direct, physical consequence of a deep idea: angular momentum is conserved when nothing from the outside interferes with your spin.
The Intuition: Spinning "Oomph"
Linear momentum is the "oomph" an object has when it moves in a straight line — a heavy truck moving fast has a lot of it. Angular momentum is the spinning equivalent. A figure skater spinning slowly with arms out has a certain amount of spinning "oomph." When she pulls her arms in, that same "oomph" has to be redistributed, and the only way to keep it constant is to spin faster.
Why? Because angular momentum depends on two things:
- How the mass is distributed relative to the axis of rotation (this is called the moment of inertia, I). Mass far from the axis gives a large I; mass close to the axis gives a small I.
- How fast it spins (the angular velocity, ω).
The product of these two is the angular momentum L:
L=Iω
When you pull your arms in, you decrease I. Since L cannot change (no external torque), ω must increase to keep the product the same. That is why you speed up.
A quick way to remember: Smaller I → larger ω for the same L.
The Precise Statement
If the net external torque acting on a system is zero, the total angular momentum of the system remains constant in both magnitude and direction.
In symbols:
τext=0⇒L=constant
Where τext is the net external torque. This is the rotational analogue of Newton's first law (the law of inertia) for rotation.
Breaking It Down
Torque is the rotational equivalent of force — it is what changes angular momentum. If you push on the edge of a spinning wheel, you apply a torque and change its spin. But if no one pushes on the wheel (no external torque), its angular momentum stays put.
Angular momentum itself is a vector quantity. It has a direction (given by the right-hand rule: curl your fingers in the direction of spin, your thumb points along L). Conservation means both the magnitude and the axis of spin are fixed — unless a torque acts.
A common mistake: thinking that angular momentum is conserved only when nothing changes inside the system. That is wrong. Internal forces (like the muscles in your arms pulling inward) can redistribute mass and change I and ω, but they cannot change the total L. Only an external torque can do that.
A Classic Example: The Diver …
Just as linear momentum is conserved when no net external force acts on a system, angular momentum is conserved when no net external torque acts on it — and this is why, for example, a spinning skater speeds up when they pull their arms in. …
When the net external torque on a system is zero, its total angular momentum L = Iω stays constant over time.
For a rotating system, angular momentum L is related to the net external torque τ by:
τ = dL/dt
If the net external torque acting on the system is zero (τ = 0) at all times, then dL/dt = 0, which means L = Iω must remain CONSTANT — this is the law of conservation of angular momentum.
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- CBSE 2026Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.Two statements are given below, one labelled Assertion (A) and the other labelled Reason (R). Select the correct answer from the codes below. Assertion (A): The speed of a whirl wind in a tornado is alarmingly high. Reason (R): If no external torque acts on a body, its angular velocity remains constant.(a) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).(b) Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).(c) (A) is true, but (R) is false.(d) (A) and (R) both are false.
›Reveal solutionSolution
The Reason states the wrong conserved quantity: it's angular momentum L=Iω that stays constant with no external torque, not ω itself.
Assertion (A): Tornado wind speeds genuinely are alarmingly high — this is an observed, true fact.
Reason (R): It claims that with no external torque, angular velocity ω remains constant. This is FALSE. The actual conservation law is for angular momentum, L=Iω: with no external torque, L stays constant, but ω itself is free to change if the moment of inertia I changes.
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- CBSE 2025Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.If the radius of earth suddenly decreases to its half while mass remains constant, then day-night will be (A) 24 hours (B) 12 hours (C) 6 hours (D) 4 hours
›Reveal solutionSolution
If earth's radius halves (mass unchanged), the day shortens from 24 hours to 6 hours by conservation of angular momentum.
Treating the earth as a uniform sphere, moment of inertia I=52MR2. If R→R/2 while M stays the same:
Inew=52M(2R)2=41⋅52MR2=4Iold
With no external torque, angular momentum L=Iω is conserved:
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- CBSE 2025Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.Which of the following is constant, when external torque acting on a body is zero?(a) Linear momentum(b) Angular momentum(c) Force(d) Linear impulse
›Reveal solutionSolution
Just as zero net force keeps linear momentum constant, zero net external torque keeps angular momentum constant -- this is the law of conservation of angular momentum.
The rotational analogue of Newton's second law is:
tau (net torque) = dL/dt (rate of change of angular momentum)
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- CBSE 2024Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.A stone tied to a string is being whirled in a circle around a rod (peg); as it winds up, the string wraps around the rod and its free length keeps decreasing. In this process, which quantity remains conserved?(a) Mass(b) Momentum(c) Angular momentum(d) Kinetic energy
›Reveal solutionSolution
The stone's speed, and therefore its kinetic energy, remains constant because the string tension is always perpendicular to the velocity and does no work; angular momentum about the fixed axis is NOT conserved here since the effective radius keeps shrinking while the speed stays the same.
As the stone winds around the peg, at every instant its path is a curve (an involute of the peg's circle) and the string is tangent to the peg at the point where it currently leaves the peg. The stone's instantaneous velocity is always perpendicular to the (locally straight) string, because the string is the only thing constraining its motion and it can only pull, never push.
A force that is always perpendicular to the velocity of a particle does zero work on it (dW = F.v dt = 0, since F is perpendicular to v). So the tension does no work on the stone as it winds in — the stone's speed does not change, and hence its kinetic energy remains constant throughout the process.
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- CBSE 2023Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.When a torque acting upon a system is zero, which of the following will be constant?(1) Force(2) Linear impulse(3) Linear momentum(4) Angular momentum
›Reveal solutionSolution
Torque plays the same role for angular momentum that force plays for linear momentum: zero net torque means angular momentum is conserved.
Newton's second law for rotation states:
tau (net torque) = dL/dt
where L is the angular momentum of the system. If the net external torque tau = 0, then dL/dt = 0, which means L is constant in time - this is the law of conservation of angular momentum.
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- CBSE 2021Set TERM11 markMCQQ.The angular momentum of a moving body remains constant, if:(a) Net external force is applied(b) Net Pressure is applied(c) Not external torgue is applied(d) Not external torgue is not applied
›Reveal solutionSolution
By the law of conservation of angular momentum, L = I x omega stays constant exactly when the net external torque on the system is zero, since (rate of change of L) = (net external torque) -- this is analogous to how linear momentum is conserved when net external force is zero.
Just as Newton's second law in linear form gives F = dp/dt, its rotational analogue is:
tau_ext = dL/dt
where tau_ext is the net external torque and L is the angular momentum.
If the net external torque acting on a system is zero (tau_ext = 0), then dL/dt = 0, which means L is constant -- angular momentum is conserved. This is the principle behind phenomena like a spinning ice-skater speeding up when pulling her arms in (no external torque, so L = I x omega stays fixed even as I decreases and omega increases).
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- CBSE 2020Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.When a torque acting on a system is zero, which of the following is constant?(a) Force(b) Linear momentum(c) Impulse(d) None of these
›Reveal solutionSolution
The rotational analogue of Newton's first law says angular momentum is conserved when net external torque is zero; since angular momentum is not listed among the choices, the correct pick here is 'none of these'.
Just as linear momentum is conserved when net force is zero, angular momentum L is conserved when net torque tau is zero: if tau = dL/dt = 0, then L is constant.
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