Question

A baton consists of a nearly massless rod of length L and two spheres attached to the end of the rod, whose masses are each M and whose centers are separated by L. The spheres have radius R. If the sphere radius R is not negligible compared to the length L, what is the moment of inertia of the baton about an axis prependicular to its length and passing through its center?

Answer 1

Using the parallel axes theorem gives
I= 2{2mR²/2 +m(L/2)²}