Steering on a Turntable
Safety Warnings
Warning: Balance and Stability
Purpose
Demonstrates conservation of angular momentum in a system with zero external torque. Swinging a hand weight on a rotating platform causes the platform to rotate in the opposite direction, showing that internal forces cannot change total angular momentum.
Figure 1:
Demonstrator on the rotating platform holding a hand weight at arm's length, ready to swing.
Figure 2:
Long exposure captures the counter-rotation of the platform as the weight is swung in a horizontal arc.