Hurricanes can involve winds in excess of 120 km/h at the outer edge.

Question

Make a crude estimate of the energy of such a hurricane, approximating it as a rigidly rotating uniform cylinder of air (density 1.3 kg*m^3 of radius 120 km and height 4.5 km.

Make a crude estimate of the angular momentum of such a hurricane.

Answer 1

Figure the mass of air: density*piR^2*h watch units.

Then figure moment of inertia

Finally, energy 1/2 I w^2 and momentum I w