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Concept
Rotation
Summary
Rotation or rotational motion is the circular movement of an object around a central line, known as axis of rotation. A plane figure can rotate in either a clockwise or counterclockwise sense around a perpendicular axis intersecting anywhere inside or outside the figure at a center of rotation. A solid figure has an infinite number of possible axes and angles of rotation, including chaotic rotation (between arbitrary orientations), in contrast to rotation around a axis.
The special case of a rotation with an internal axis passing through the body's own center of mass is known as a spin (or autorotation). In that case, the surface intersection of the internal spin axis can be called a pole; for example, Earth's rotation defines the geographical poles.
A rotation around a completely external axis is called a revolution (or orbit), e.g. Earth's orbit around the Sun. The ends of the external axis of revolution can be called the orbital poles.
Either type of rotation is involved in a corresponding type of angular velocity (spin angular velocity and orbital angular velocity) and angular momentum (spin angular momentum and orbital angular momentum).
Rotation (mathematics)
Mathematically, a rotation is a rigid body movement which, unlike a translation, keeps at least one point fixed. This definition applies to rotations in two dimensions (in a plane), in which exactly one point is kept fixed; and also in three dimensions (in space), in which additional points may be kept fixed (as in rotation around a fixed axis, as infinite line).
All rigid body movements are rotations, translations, or combinations of the two.
A rotation is simply a progressive radial orientation to a common point. That common point lies within the axis of that motion. The axis is perpendicular to the plane of the motion.
If a rotation around a point or axis is followed by a second rotation around the same point/axis, a third rotation results. The reverse (inverse) of a rotation is also a rotation. Thus, the rotations around a point/axis form a group.
Official source
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