Rotation (
)Piecewise Quadratic Polynomial
)The rotation 
within each element is described by a
quadratic polynomial. The displacement function (v)
is a cubic function and since the rotation is the derivative of
the displacement function, 
, it must be a quadratic
function. Over the entire element mesh the function is a
piecewise quadratic function. Any two elements that have
different material properties, geometric properties, loading
and/or constraints will have different rotation functions also,
since a change in an element's properties, loading and/or
constraints will change the constants in it's quadratic
polynomial,