Angular momentumUnits Type ⤴

Quantity of rotational motion. Linear momentum is the quantity obtained by multiplying the mass of a body by its linear velocity. Angular momentum is the quantity obtained by multiplying the moment of inertia of a body by its angular velocity. The momentum of a system of particles is given by the sum of the momenta of the individual particles which make up the system or by the product of the total mass of the system and the velocity of the center of gravity of the system. The momentum of a continuous medium is given by the integral of the velocity over the mass of the medium or by the product of the total mass of the medium and the velocity of the center of gravity of the medium. In physics, the angular momentum of an object rotating about some reference point is the measure of the extent to which the object will continue to rotate about that point unless acted upon by an external torque. In particular, if a point mass rotates about an axis, then the angular momentum with respect to a point on the axis is related to the mass of the object, the velocity and the distance of the mass to the axis. While the motion associated with linear momentum has no absolute frame of reference, the rotation associated with angular momentum is sometimes spoken of as being measured relative to the fixed stars. The physical quantity "action" has the same units as angular momentum.