Question

in the case of the washing macine why is the acceleration so high?..its hard to imagine such a big number for its acceleration when the velocity is so much lower...

Answer 1

it's angular acceleration on the other hand acceleration is high as to keep the whirl motion so that clothes may be washed thoroughly.
its again like after a certain number of rotations the direction of current is reversed thus the rotation of machine reverses opposing the momentum of water. you need a heavy motor to do such a task. a small motor may not take such a load.

Answer 2

Simple language, just to create more turbulence.. and the motor is design for low speed high torque, to take the load inside the machine..

Answer 3

Acceleration is a change in velocity. But remember velocity is a vector so it has a speed AND direction. So an acceleration doesn't always mean that you're changing speed. An acceleration in this case is a change in direction, and since it's going in a circle and not a straight line it is constantly accelerating by changing direction!

Answer 4

im still not getting how changing direction adds metres per second...is it something to do with how far on the circumference the radius line covers in a second?

Answer 5

the area it covers travelling in one second..

Answer 6

think about this, follow a single point along the circumference of the washing machines drum... at any time (lets say at time t= 0) that point has a velocity vector in the x and y directions that are tangential to the circumference ( and a z component if your washing machine is rocking). A fraction of a second later (t+dt) that point has moved further along the circumference. its tangential velocity has different x and y coordinates. we know that acceleration is dv/dt (change in velocity divided by change in time, remember velocity is a vector)
an example.
V(at t=0sec) = <5i+2j>
V(at=5sec)=<2i+5>
the velocities magnitude are the same, |V| = Squareroot(29)
a=dv/dt
dv = V(5) - V(0) = <-3i+3j> [m/s]
dt = 5-0 = 5 [seconds]
dv/dt =<-3i+3j> / 5 seconds

=squareroot(18)/5 [m/s^2]
=0.848 m/s^2