Rigid Rotor

The rigid rotor is a mechanical model that is used to explain rotating systems. An arbitrary rigid rotor is a 3-dimensional rigid object, such as a top. To orient such an object in space two angles and a radius, r, are required. A special rigid rotor is the linear rotor which is a 2-dimensional object, requiring two angles to describe its orientation. An example of a linear rotor is a diatomic molecule. More general molecules like water (asymmetric rotor), ammonia (symmetric rotor), or methane (spherical rotor) are 3-dimensional, see classification of molecules.