Symbols:L/Angular Momentum

Angular Momentum

$\mathbf L$

Let $P$ be a particle of mass $m$ moving with velocity $\mathbf v$ relative to a point $O$.

The angular momentum of $P$ relative to (or about) $O$ is defined as:

$\mathbf L = \mathbf r \times \mathbf p = m \paren {\mathbf r \times \mathbf v}$

where:

$\mathbf p$ denotes the (linear) momentum of $P$

$\mathbf r$ denotes the position vector of $P$ with respect to $O$

$\times$ denotes the vector cross product.

The usual symbol used to denote the angular momentum of a body is $\mathbf L$.

The $\LaTeX$ code for \(\mathbf L\) is \mathbf L .

Sources

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): angular momentum (moment of momentum)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): angular momentum (moment of momentum)