---
title: "A student performs an experiment to determine the rotational inertia and the frictional torque of a flywheel mounted on a fixed axle. The student exerts various positive applied torques \\(\\tau_{\\text{applied}}\\) to the flywheel and measures the resulting angular acceleration \\(\\alpha\\). A linear fit to the experimental data is plotted below.  Which of the following statements correctly relates the features of the graph to the physical properties of the flywheel system?"
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url: "https://nerd-notes.com/ubq/120783/"
date_modified: "2026-08-23T04:43:20+00:00"
---

# A student performs an experiment to determine the rotational inertia and the frictional torque of a flywheel mounted on a fixed axle. The student exerts various positive applied torques \(\tau_{\text{applied}}\) to the flywheel and measures the resulting angular acceleration \(\alpha\). A linear fit to the experimental data is plotted below.

Which of the following statements correctly relates the features of the graph to the physical properties of the flywheel system?

A student performs an experiment to determine the rotational inertia and the frictional torque of a flywheel mounted on a fixed axle. The student exerts various positive applied torques \(\tau_{\text{applied}}\) to the flywheel and measures the resulting angular acceleration \(\alpha\). A linear fit to the experimental data is plotted below.

Which of the following statements correctly relates the features of the graph to the physical properties of the flywheel system?

![A Cartesian coordinate graph with a horizontal axis labeled \tau_{\text{applied}} (\text{N}\cdot\text{m}) and a vertical axis labeled \alpha (\text{rad/s}^2). The vertical axis includes both positive and negative regions, while the horizontal axis extends to the right through positive values. A single solid line with a constant positive slope starts in the fourth quadrant at a negative vertical intercept, extends upward and to the right, crosses the horizontal axis at a positive value marked \tau_0, and continues into the first quadrant. No gridlines are shown. No other labels, lines, text, or axes appear.](https://nerd-notes.com/wp-content/uploads/ubq-frq-generated/stem-fig-1-1787460200-s61LWX.jpg)

- **A.** The rotational inertia is equal to the slope of the line, and the magnitude of the frictional torque is equal to the vertical intercept.
- **B.** The rotational inertia is equal to the reciprocal of the slope of the line, and the magnitude of the frictional torque is equal to the horizontal intercept.
- **C.** The rotational inertia is equal to the reciprocal of the slope of the line, and the magnitude of the frictional torque is equal to the magnitude of the vertical intercept.
- **D.** The rotational inertia is equal to the slope of the line, and the magnitude of the frictional torque is equal to the horizontal intercept.

*The answer key and step-by-step explanation are available to logged-in users at https://nerd-notes.com/ubq/120783/*