Question

MEDAL GIVEN TO CORRECT ANSWER.
An amusement park ride spins you around in a circle of radius 4.3 m with a speed of 12.3 m/s. If your mass is 95 kg, what is the centripetal force acting on you?

A. 5238 N
B. 3342 N
C. 272 N
D. 3690 N

Answer 1

We are given the linear velocity of an object with a mass of 95 kg. We need to first find the angular speed defined by the greek letter omega
\[\omega \]
The equations we need are:\[v = r \omega\]
\[a _{c}=r \omega ^{2}\]\[F = (mass)(acceleration)\]

You are given the linear velocity 12.3 m/s and the radius 4.3 m. Plug that into your first equation to find out the angular velocity (omega).

Secondly, take that angular velocity and plug it into the 2nd equation to figure out the centripetal acceleration defined by the a_c.

Thirdly, take that centripetal acceleration and plug it and the mass of the object into your third equation to find the centripetal force.

Then you are done.