Past exam of the physics 1 paper of the University of Oxford / 2014 resit / 1 / a / Solution

Take the square to have uniform surface mass density $\sigma =M/a^2$, and put its centre at $x=y=0$. For an in-plane axis through the centre parallel to a side, direct integration givesThe same holds for $I_y$, and the mixed integral $\int xydm$ vanishes by reflection symmetry. The squared perpendicular distance to an axis making angle $\psi$ with the $x$ axis is $(-x\sin \psi +y\cos \psi {)}^2$. Its integral therefore givesThus a diagonal through opposite corners and its perpendicular through the centre haveThis is the in-plane inertia isotropy of a square plate.

Axis-location qualification: perpendicularity fixes a direction, not a line's position. If the second axis is instead shifted by distance $d$ from the centre, the parallel axis theorem gives $I_2=M{a}^2/12+M{d}^2$. A perpendicular through a corner on that diagonal has $d=a/\sqrt{2}$ and hence $I_2=7M{a}^2/12$, a concrete different value satisfying the stated directional description. If “through the corners” means an edge rather than a diagonal, that edge has $I=M{a}^2/3$; two adjacent edges both have that value. The general displaced-axis formula and these choices make the location convention explicit rather than silently assigning a unique value to an unspecified second axis.