Diagram shows a vertical bar of length h and width b. The centroid is centered on the vertical bar along the c axis. A parallel horizontal line to the c axis is drawn at the bottom of the diagram. A caption at the bottom below the parallel horizontal line reads: any axis parallel to centroid axis c.

The equation

gives the moment of inertia of a rectangle about its own centroidal axis (axis c in the sketch).

Often, we must compute the moment of inertia of this area about some other axis, one that is parallel to the area's centroidal axis c.

Here is Canvas object wihch demonstrate the problem.