to understand the definition and the meaning of moment of inertia; to be able to calculate the moments of inertia for a group of particles and for a continuous mass distribution with a high degree of symmetry. by now, you may be familiar with a set of equations describing rotational kinematics. one thing that you may have noticed was the similarity between translational and rotational formulas. such similarity also exists in dynamics and in the work-energy domain. for a particle of mass mmm moving at a constant speed vvv, the kinetic energy is given by the formula k