Angular Momentum
Of a Bicycle Wheel We will begin our discussion of the angular momentum of a bicycle wheel using the picture of a bicycle wheel, i.e., a collection of balls on the end of massless rods or spokes. If the wheel is rotating with an angular velocity ω , then each ball has a tangential velocity vt given by Equation 1
vt = rω (1)
If the i-th ball in the wheel (identified in Figure 1) has a mass mi , then its angular momentum 
will be given by
............(2)
Assuming that the total angular momentum L of the bicycle wheel is the sum of the angular momenta of each ball (we will discuss this assumption in more detail shortly) we get
............(3)
Since each mass mi is at the same radius r and is traveling with the same angular velocity ω , we get
Noting that M = (Σi mi) is the total mass of the bicycle wheel, we get
............(4)
Figure 1: The angular momentum of the i’th ball is mi vtri .
