Kinetic energy decomposition about the center of mass

ID: kinetic-energy-decomposition-about-the-center-of-mass

Kinetic energy decomposition about the center of mass by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-18
Writing particle positions relative to the center of mass as makes , so the cross term in the squared velocities vanishes. The total kinetic energy splits into center-of-mass translation and relative motion as displayed. For a rigid body, the latter is , where is the moment of inertia about the instantaneous rotation axis through the center of mass.

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