From Lagrangian dynamics, we know that we can extract the physics if we know the kinetic and potential
energy,
and
.
For now we will not be applying any potential so we only have the kinetic energy.
The two terms in the sum clearly
separate the energy due to center of mass motion and
the energy due to rotation.
Now we need a vector identity.
The kinetic energy due to rotation is not in general
but rather a more complicated inner product between
the
moment of inertia tensor
and two angular velocity vectors
.
Jim Branson
2012-10-21