Average Angular Velocity

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of the separation of rotational and internal motion. It introduces the concept of average angular velocity as the moment of inertia weighted average of particle angular velocities. It extends and elucidates the concept of Jellinek and Li (1989) of separation of the energy of overall rotation in an arbitrary (non-linear) $N$-particle system. It generalizes the so called Koenig's theorem on the two parts of the kinetic energy (center of mass plus internal) to three parts: center of mass, rotational, plus the remaining internal energy relative to an optimally translating and rotating frame.