I was using a concrete diamond cutting cup attached to an angle grinder at work the other day. The disk is heavy-ish (maybe a pound or two). When I turn the power on, it feels as though the thing gains 5 pounds. What is happening?
In: Physics
“Heavy” is kind of an imprecise term. But if you mean “Is a spinning disk harder to move than a stationary one?” the answer is yes. The spinning adds angular momentum, which you can just think of as weird momentum; a spinning disk will continue to spin, but that spinning will try to push the axle around. So if you are holding the axle in a certain direction (such as angle grinding), the momentum will be pushing your hold in addition to the overall weight of the tool. As the disk is heavier and faster, the momentum is increased.
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