We can also use the principle of conservation of energy for a rigid object that’s both moving through space as a whole and rotating. In such a situation it turns out that we can write the object’s \(\textit{total}\) kinetic energy as the sum of two terms: the \(\textit{translational}\) kinetic energy associated with the motion of the object’s center of mass (see Section 7-7), and the \(\textit{rotational}\) kinetic energy associated with the object’s rotation around its center of mass (Figure 8-12). If the object has mass \(M\) and its center of mass is moving with speed \(v_\mathrm{CM}\), its translational kinetic energy is \(K = \frac{1}{2}Mv_\mathrm{CM}^2\) ; if the object’s moment of inertia for an axis through its center of mass is \(I_\mathrm{CM}\) and it rotates with angular speed \(\omega\), its rotational kinetic energy is \(K_\mathrm{rotational} = \frac{1}{2}I_\mathrm{CM}\omega^2\). The total kinetic energy (translational plus rotational) of the object is then: