Suppose a space station rotates once every 2 minutes. The diameter of the station's wheel is 3500 meters.
(a) If an astronaut is standing on the inside of the outer rim, what is the centripetal acceleration that she experiences?
(b) What is her angular velocity?

Question

Suppose a space station rotates once every 2 minutes. The diameter of the station's wheel is 3500 meters.
(a) If an astronaut is standing on the inside of the outer rim, what is the centripetal acceleration that she experiences?
(b) What is her angular velocity?

mani_jha · Answer

The formula for centripetal acceleration of a body is :
$$v ^{2}/r$$
Any idea how to find the speed v?(Hint: Speed =Distance/time_)

sinbearciante · Answer

Dnt over confuse yourself. if Im reading your question right, then a is what Mani has written, and b is just a conversion (again, that is if you are saying that its speed is 2rpm (revolutions per minute)). You may be able to leave it like that or, for the sake of angular/rotational physics, you may want to convert it to radians/s (1rev=2(pi)rads). 

You use the ang velocity of the space station for the astronaut b/c, as the problem states, the astronaut it right on the edge. And since the radius of astro<<radius of space station, the difference is negligible so we stick with the one given.