A figure skater spins with arms extended. When she pulls her arms in, what happens to her rotational speed?

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Q: A figure skater spins with arms extended. When she pulls her arms in, what happens to her rotational speed?

Solution: Pulling her arms in decreases her moment of inertia, causing her rotational speed to increase to conserve angular momentum.

Steps: 5

Step 1: Understand that the figure skater is spinning with her arms out. This is her starting position.
Step 2: Know that when she pulls her arms in, she changes her body shape while spinning.
Step 3: Recognize that pulling her arms in makes her moment of inertia smaller. Moment of inertia is a measure of how spread out her mass is.
Step 4: Remember the principle of angular momentum, which states that if no external forces act on a spinning object, its angular momentum stays the same.
Step 5: Since her moment of inertia decreases when she pulls her arms in, her rotational speed must increase to keep the angular momentum constant.