Turn
The turn starts off with the follower and the leader side by side and hands crossed.
Photo Courtesy of Heather Olson
The leader pulls the follower so that she is facing him.
Photo Courtesy of Heather Olson
Let us find the amount of work done by the system when defining the dancers as particles. The diameter will be defined as the length from the outer edge of one dancer to the outer edge of the other dancer. M will stand for the leader's mass and m will be used for the follower's mass. w will be the angular velocity, I will be the moment of inertia, and r is radius.
To find the work you must subtract the intial kinetic energy from the final kinetic energy. The equation for rotational kinetic energy is: Iw2. The equation for the moment of inertia for particles is: (M+m)r2
So calculating this gives you:{[(M+m)final radius2]final w2}- {[(M+m)initial radius2]initial w2}
Plug in your variables and you have just calculated the work done by two dancers during a turn.
23 November 2004