I am currently working on a physics experiment to confirm the parallel axis theorem. To do this, I have the following setup:
In this experiment I change the distance between the centre of the rotating disc and the central axis. I record the time for 5 complete rotations and use this to calculate the moment of inertia. I also measure the mass and the radius of the rotating disc. I then plot the moment of inertia against the square of the radius and this produces a straight line graph with a non-zero intercept.
How can I now use this data to confirm the parallel axis theorem?