AP Physics

Circular Motion Review

1. A 0.0056 kg bug is sitting on a DVD disk about to be spun by the DVD drive. The bug is sitting 5.5
cm from the center of rotation of a 120 Hz drive.
a. What is the centripetal force on the bug?
b. If the bug has a coefficient of friction of 0.14, would the bug stay on the DVD?

2. A flat puck is rotated in a circular path of radius 0.45 m on a horizontal frictionless table, and is
held in this orbit by a string attached to a 0.75 kg mass through a hole in the table as shown. The
puck completes 5 rotations in 6.4 s.

r =0.45 m Puck (m1)

0.75 kg

a. Find the speed of the puck.

b. Find the centripetal acceleration.
c. Find the maximum mass of the puck.

3. A truck can round a flat circular track of 89 m at a maximum speed at 17 m/s under dry
conditions.
a. What is the minimum coefficient of friction between its tires and the track to keep the
truck from skidding?
b. If the track is wet and friction is reduced to 20% of its normal value, what is the trucks
maximum speed under these wet conditions?
c. What is the minimum time for the truck to complete one lap on a dry track and a wet
track?

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4. A space station consists of two outer wings with a distance of 64 m and two inner wings with a
distance of 48 m from the center as shown. The station rotates to generate artificial gravity and
the astronauts at A experience an acceleration of 8.0 m/s2.

64 m
48 m

a. What is the period of the rotation of the space station?

b. If the mass of the astronaut at B is 52 kg what are the astronauts acceleration and
normal force experienced by the wall?
c. If the period of the rotation were to decrease, how does this affect the normal force
experienced by the astronauts?

5. A toy airplane is suspended from the ceiling by a 0.75 m string. The plane revolves in a
horizontal circle at a constant speed as shown.

0.75 m
27o

a. What is the speed of the plane?

b. What is the period of revolution and frequency of the airplane?
6. A 45 kg girl and Ferris wheel moves in a vertical circle of radius 12.4 m. The period of the Ferris
wheel is 18 s. Find the normal forces on the girl at the bottom and at the top if the Ferris wheel.

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7. A 1200 kg car travels at a constant speed on a hill of radius 48 m as shown.

v = 14 m/s

R = 48 m

a. Draw a free-body of the force acting on the car.

b. If the car travels at the top of the hill at 14 m/s, what is he normal force exerted by the
road on the car.
c. What is the minimum speed that the car can have as it passes the top of the hill before
losing contact with road (becoming weightless)?

8. A 2.5 kg pendulum bob that is 1.6 m long is pulled horizontal and then released.
a. What is the speed of the bob at the bottom of its path?
b. The maximum tensional force of the string on the pendulum bob is 70 N. Will the
pendulum bob string break? If so where in its motion would it do so?

9. In a rotor-ride in a carnival people are rotated in a cylindrically walled room. (See image below).
The room has a radius of 4.6 m and the rotational frequency of 0.50 Hz when the floor drops.

a. What is the minimum coefficient of friction between the walls and the people so the
people stay pressed to the wall?
b. The people feel as if they are pressed to the wall during the ride. Does this force really
exist? Explain what is really going on.

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10. The Vomit Comet is NASAs plane to test astronauts for micro-gravity conditions. The plane is
an old passenger jet with the seats removed and padding place in its interior. The pilot puts the
plane in a series of dives and climbs as shown below:

R=?

a. The plane travels at 210 m/s and must have the astronauts experience zero-g at the top
of its motion. What would be the radius of the planes path?
b. What acceleration of gravity would the astronauts experience at the bottom of the
planes path assuming the plane travels at a constant speed? How many gs is this?