Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017/prelims/mathematics-iv-resit/6/a/solution

By symmetry, the centre of mass is . Choose horizontal axes through and the vertical symmetry axis as the third axis, writing . With uniform mass density , the inertia tensor has entries
Reflection in each coordinate plane makes all the mixed integrals , , and vanish. Rotational symmetry about the vertical axis gives . Thus these are principal axes and
The axial moment of inertia of a hollow cylinder is
Its mass is . Dividing and factoring the difference of squares gives

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