The rim of the London Eye (a 135m diameter ferris wheel) moves 26 cm/sec, slow enough for passengers to safely get on the wheel from the platform (2 meters above ground level) without stopping the wheel at the bottom of its rotation.

What's the height at the bottom of the wheel? The top? How high above the ground is the center of the wheel?

How far does a passenger travel as the wheel makes one complete revolution? How much time does that take?

Question

The rim of the London Eye (a 135m diameter ferris wheel) moves 26 cm/sec, slow enough for passengers to safely get on the wheel from the platform (2 meters above ground level) without stopping the wheel at the bottom of its rotation.

What's the height at the bottom of the wheel? The top? How high above the ground is the center of the wheel?

How far does a passenger travel as the wheel makes one complete revolution? How much time does that take?

anonymous · Answer

The height at the bottom is two meters, stated in the problem

The height at the top is 137 meters (diameter + bottom height)

The center is 70.5 meters above the ground (diameter/2 + bottom height)

anonymous · Answer

The distance traveled is equal to the circumference of the circle, 424 meters. (pi * 135)

anonymous · Answer

The time taken is the distance traveled in centimeters, 42,400 centimeters, divided by the rate. 1630 seconds, or about 27 minutes.

anonymous · Answer

Thank you!! I'm supposed to have a similar problem on my final tomorrow but we didn't really go over the steps very clearly in class...

anonymous · Answer

Need a more detailed explanation then? :)

anonymous · Answer

i have a question... why would i convert the meters into centimeters to figure out the amount of time?

anonymous · Answer

Because the unit of speed in the question is presented in Centimeters per second. :)