I am investigating the relationship between the moment of inertia of a yoyo-like apparatus (maxwell's wheel) and its damping coeff. I am adding disks to my yoyo to change its moment of inertia, which incidentally also changes its weight.
As the moment of inertia increases, the damping coeff. decreases, and up to a certain point. I don't understand what explains this - is it because:
higher moment of inertia means the yoyo falls slower (although seems negligible in my experiment), reducing air drag
higher rolling friction if the yoyo's cord unwinds faster
restitution of energy after the impact at the end varies with speed or weight
weight affects friction?
What is the factor that I should investigate? I've done some calculations without taking account drag/friction, and it seems like from a theoretical standpoint the moment of inertia has minimal effects on the damping coeff. The kinetic energy of the yoyo is very low compared to its rotational kinetic energy, so loosing that kinetic energy during the bounce does not seem to have any major effect.
So, what does the moment of inertia of the yoyo affect?
