Could anyone tell me INTUITIVELY why moment of inertia for point mass is mr^2, please?
I applaud and encourage you to insist that, whenever possible, things make intuitive sense to you before you consider that topic “learned”. This question, however, I think affords you the opportunity to develop a deeper appreciation of “faith in the math” that sooner or later all physics subjects require of the student or researcher. So, my answer to you is this: I personally can only “feel” a deep intuitive agreement and understanding of ” F = ma” — a linear relationship. Living my life under the influence of gravity, and my brain being very comfortable with first-order linear relationships, I am “on board” with F = ma. Well, I can also see that the same concept applies to rotational motion – the harder something is to move, the more force required to accelerate it. Now, in rotational motion, what is “F” and what is “m” and what is “a”. Well, only the math -the derivation – can lead me from knowing intuitively that reisitance to rotation increases with increasing r, to knowing that i
