CIRCULAR MOTION

Praveen Alwis B.Tech(OUSL)

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1. A dentists drill starts from rest. After 3.20 s of constant angular acceleration, it
turns at a rate of 2.51 104 rev/min.
(a) Find the drills angular acceleration.
(b) Determine the angle (in radians) through which the drill rotates during this
period.
2. A centrifuge in a medical laboratory rotates at an angular speed of 3 600 rev/min.
When switched off, it rotates through 50.0 revolutions before coming to rest. Find
the constant angular acceleration (in rad/s2) of the centrifuge.
3. A machine part rotates at an angular speed of 0.06 rad/s; its speed is then
increased to 2.2 rad/s at an angular acceleration of 0.70 rad/s2.
(a) Find the angle through which the part rotates before reaching this final speed.
(b) In general, if both the initial and final angular speed are doubled at the same
angular acceleration, by what factor is the angular displacement changed? Why?
4. A bicycle is turned upside down while its owner repairs a flat tire. A friend spins
the other wheel and observes that drops of water fly off tangentially. She
measures the heights reached by drops moving vertically (Fig.). A drop that
breaks loose from the tire on one turn rises vertically 54.0 cm above the tangent
point. A drop that breaks loose on the next turn rises 51.0 cm above the tangent
point. The radius of the wheel is 0.381 m.
(a) Why does the first drop rise higher than the second drop?
(b) Neglecting air friction and using only the observed heights and the radius of
the wheel, find the wheels angular acceleration (assuming it to be constant).

5. The diameters of the main rotor and tail rotor of a single-engine helicopter are
7.60 m and 1.02 m, respectively. The respective rotational speeds are 450 rev/min
and 4 138 rev/min. Calculate the speeds of the tips of both rotors. Compare these
speeds with the speed of sound, 343 m/s.

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6. The tub of a washer goes into its spin-dry cycle, starting from rest and reaching an
angular speed of 5.0 rev/s in 8.0 s. At this point, the person doing the laundry
opens the lid, and a safety switch turns off the washer. The tub slows to rest in
12.0 s. Through how many revolutions does the tub turn during the entire 20-s
interval? Assume constant angular acceleration while it is starting
and stopping.
7. A car initially traveling at 29.0 m/s undergoes a constant negative acceleration of
magnitude 1.75 m/s2 after its brakes are applied.
(a) How many revolutions does each tire make before the car comes to a stop,
assuming the car does not skid and the tires have radii of 0.330 m?
(b) What is the angular speed of the wheels when the car has traveled half the
total distance?
8. A 45.0-cm diameter disk rotates with a constant angular acceleration of 2.50
rad/s2. It starts from rest at t =0, and a line drawn from the center of the disk to a
point P on the rim of the disk makes an angle of 57.3 with the positive x-axis at
this time. At t= 2.30 s, find
(a) the angular speed of the wheel,
(b) the linear velocity and tangential acceleration of P, and
(c) the position of P (in degrees, with respect to the positive
x-axis).
9. A rotating wheel requires 3.00 s to rotate 37.0 revolutions. Its angular velocity at
the end of the 3.00-s interval is 98.0 rad/s. What is the constant angular
acceleration (in rad/s2) of the wheel?
10. An electric motor rotating a workshop grinding wheel at a rate of 1.00 102
rev/min is switched off. Assume the wheel has a constant negative angular
acceleration of magnitude 2.00 rad/s2.
(a) How long does it take for the grinding wheel to stop?
(b) Through how many radians has the wheel turned during the interval found in
part (a)?
11. A car initially traveling eastward turns north by traveling in a circular path at uniform
speed as shown in Figure. The length of the arc ABC is 235 m, and the car completes the
turn in 36.0 s.
(a) Determine the cars speed.
(b) What is the magnitude and direction of the acceleration when the car is at point B?

12. It has been suggested that rotating cylinders about 10 mi long and 5.0 mi in diameter
be placed in space and used as colonies. What angular speed must such a
cylinder have so that the centripetal acceleration at its surface equals the free-fall
acceleration on Earth?

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13. (a) What is the tangential acceleration of a bug on the rim of a 10.0-in.-diameter disk
if the disk accelerates uniformly from rest to an angular speed of 78.0 rev/min in 3.00 s?
(b) When the disk is at its final speed, what is the tangential velocity of the bug? One
second after the bug starts from rest, what are its
(c) tangential acceleration,
(d) centripetal acceleration,and
(e) total acceleration?
14. An adventurous archeologist (m 5 85.0 kg) tries to cross a river by swinging from a
vine. The vine is 10.0 m long, and his speed at the bottom of the swing is 8.00 m/s. The
archeologist doesnt know that the vine has a breaking strength of 1 000 N. Does he
make it across the river without falling in?
15. One end of a cord is fixed and a small 0.500-kg object is attached to the other end,
where it swings in a section of a vertical circle of radius 2.00 m, as shown in Figure.
When = 20.0, the speed of the object is 8.00 m/s. At this instant, find
(a) the tension in the string,
(b) the tangential and radial components of acceleration, and
(c) the total acceleration.
(d) Is your answer changed if the object is swinging down toward its lowest point instead
of swinging up?
(e) Explain your answer to part (d).

16. A coin rests 15.0 cm from the center of a turntable. The coefficient of static friction
between the coin and turntable surface is 0.350. The turntable starts from rest at t =0
and rotates with a constant angular acceleration of 0.730 rad/s2.
(a) Once the turntable starts to rotate, what force causes the centripetal acceleration
when the coin is stationary relative to the turntable? Under what condition does the coin
begin to move relative to the turntable?
(b) After what period of time will the coin start to slip on the turntable?
17. A 55.0-kg ice skater is moving at 4.00 m/s when she grabs the loose end of a rope,
the opposite end of which is tied to a pole. She then moves in a circle of radius 0.800 m
around the pole.
(a) Determine the force exerted by the horizontal rope on her arms.
(b) Compare this force with her weight.
18. A 40.0-kg child swings in a swing supported by two chains, each 3.00 m long. The
tension in each chain at the lowest point is 350 N. Find
(a) the childs speed at the lowest point and
(b) the force exerted by the seat on the child at the lowest point. (Ignore the mass of
the seat.)
19. A certain light truck can go around a flat curve having a radius of 150 m with a
maximum speed of 32.0 m/s. With what maximum speed can it go around a curve
having a radius of 75.0 m?
20. A 50.0-kg child stands at the rim of a merry-go-round of radius 2.00 m, rotating with
an angular speed of 3.00 rad/s.

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(a) What is the childs centripetal acceleration?

(b) What is the minimum force between her feet and the floor of the carousel that is
required to keep her in the circular path?
(c) What minimum coefficient of static friction is required? Is the answer you
found reasonable? In other words, is she likely to stay on the merry-go-round?
22. A space habitat for a long space voyage consists of two cabins each connected by a
cable to a central hub as shown in Figure. The cabins are set spinning around the hub
axis, which is connected to the rest of the spacecraft to generate artificial gravity.
(a) What forces are acting on an astronaut in one of the cabins?
(b) Write Newtons second law for an astronaut lying on the floor of one of the habitats,
relating the astronauts mass m, his velocity v, his radial distance from
the hub r, and the normal force n.
(c) What would n have to equal if the 60.0-kg astronaut is to experience half his normal
Earth weight?
(d) Calculate the necessary tangential speed of the habitat from Newtons second law.
(e) Calculate the angular speed from the tangential speed.
(f) Calculate the period of rotation from the angular speed.
(g) If the astronaut stands up, will his head be moving faster, slower, or at the same
speed as his feet? Why? Calculate the tangential speed at the top of his head if he is 1.80
m tall.

23. An air puck of mass m1 is tied to a string and allowed to revolve in a circle of radius
R on a horizontal, frictionless table. The other end of the string passes through a small
hole in the center of the table, and an object of mass m2 is tied to it (Fig.). The
suspended object remains in equilibrium while the puck on the tabletop revolves.
(a) Find a symbolic expression for the tension in the string in terms of m2 and g.
(b) Write Newtons second law for the air puck, using the variables m1, v, R, and T.
(c) Eliminate the tension T from the expressions found in parts (a) and
(b) and find an expression for the speed of the puckin terms of m1, m2, g, and R.
(d) Check your answers by substituting the values of Problem 27 and comparing
the results with the answers for that problem.
24. A 40.0-kg child takes a ride on a Ferris wheel that rotates four times each minute and
has a diameter of 18.0 m.
(a) What is the centripetal acceleration of the child?
(b) What force (magnitude and direction) does the seat exert on the child at the lowest
point of the ride?
(c) What force does the seat exert on the child at the highest point of the ride?
(d) What force does the seat exert on the child when the child is halfway
between the top and bottom?
25. A roller-coaster vehicle has a mass of 500 kg when fully loaded with passengers
(Fig.). (a) If the vehicle has a speed of 20.0 m/s at point A, what is the force of the track
on the vehicle at this point?
(b) What is the maximum speed the vehicle can have at point B for gravity to hold it on
the track?

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26. A model airplane of mass 0.750 kg flies with a speed of 35.0 m/s in a horizontal circle
at the end of a 60.0-m control wire as shown in Figure The forces exerted on the airplane
are shown in Figure the tension in the control wire, = 20.0 inward from the vertical.
Compute the tension in the wire, assuming the wire makes a constant angle of = 20.0
with the horizontal.

27. Suppose a 1 800-kg car passes over a bump in a roadway that follows the arc of a
circle of radius 20.4 m, as in Figure.
(a) What force does the road exert on the car as the car passes the highest point of the
bump if the car travels at 8.94 m/s?
(b) What is the maximum speed the car can have without losing contact with the
road as it passes this highest point?

28. The maximum lift force on a bat is proportional

to the square of its flying speed v. For the hoary bat
(Lasiurus cinereus), the magnitude of the lift force is
given by
FL = (0.018 N s2/m2)v2
The bat can fly in a horizontal circle by banking its wings at an angle , as shown in
Figure. In this situation, the magnitude of the vertical component of the lift force must
equal the bats weight. The horizontal component of the force provides the centripetal
acceleration.

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(a) What is the minimum speed that the bat can have if its mass is 0.031 kg?
(b) If the maximum speed of the bat is 10 m/s, what is the maximum banking angle that
allows the bat to stay in a horizontal plane?
(c) What is the radius of the circle of its flight when the bat flies at its maximum speed?
(d) Can the bat turn with a smaller radius by flying more slowly?

A 0.50-kg ball that is tied to the end of a 1.5-m light cord is revolved in
a horizontal plane, with the cord making a 30 angle with the vertical. (See Fig)
(a) Determine the balls speed.
(b) If, instead, the ball is revolved so that its speed is 4.0 m/s, what angle does the cord
make with the vertical?
(c) If the cord can withstand a maximum tension of 9.8 N, what is the highest speed at
which the ball can move?

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Past paper questions

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