The Torsion Pendulum

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What is Moment of Inertia?

Moment of Inertia (MOI) is a physical property of an object that indicates the object's resistance to rotation.  A large MOI indicates that a large effort is required to produce a given rotation, while a small value indicates that only a small effort is needed. When a shotgun is brought into motion, the motion may be broken down into combinations of rotations and translations. While the mass of the gun (indicated by its weight) affects how much effort is required to translate the gun (move it from one point to another), the gun's MOI determines how much effort it takes to accomplish the rotation.

General Movement         =         Rotation         +         Translation