8. Centripetal Forces & Gravitation

A ball travels on a frictionless circular track at 3m/s. The ball cannot have an acceleration greater than 1.5m/s² or it will go off the track. What is the smallest radius the circular track can have so that the ball stays on the track?

At its Ames Research Center, NASA uses its large '20-G' centrifuge to test the effects of very large accelerations ('hypergravity') on test pilots and astronauts. In this device, an arm 8.84 m long rotates about one end in a horizontal plane, and an astronaut is strapped in at the other end. Suppose that he is aligned along the centrifuge's arm with his head at the outermost end. The maximum sustained acceleration to which humans are subjected in this device is typically 12.5g. What is the difference between the acceleration of his head and feet if the astronaut is 2.00 m tall?

At its Ames Research Center, NASA uses its large '20-G' centrifuge to test the effects of very large accelerations ('hypergravity') on test pilots and astronauts. In this device, an arm 8.84 m long rotates about one end in a horizontal plane, and an astronaut is strapped in at the other end. Suppose that he is aligned along the centrifuge's arm with his head at the outermost end. The maximum sustained acceleration to which humans are subjected in this device is typically 12.5g. How fast must the astronaut's head be moving to experience this maximum acceleration?

A model of a helicopter rotor has four blades, each 3.40 m long from the central shaft to the blade tip. The model is rotated in a wind tunnel at 550 rev/min. What is the radial acceleration of the blade tip expressed as a multiple of g?

A model of a helicopter rotor has four blades, each 3.40 m long from the central shaft to the blade tip. The model is rotated in a wind tunnel at 550 rev/min. What is the linear speed of the blade tip, in m/s?

The earth has a radius of 6380 km and turns around once on its axis in 24 h. If a_rad at the equator is greater than g, objects will fly off the earth's surface and into space. (We will see the reason for this in Chapter 5.) What would the period of the earth's rotation have to be for this to occur?

The earth has a radius of 6380 km and turns around once on its axis in 24 h. What is the radial acceleration of an object at the earth's equator? Give your answer in m/s² and as a fraction of g.

Communications satellites are placed in a circular orbit where they stay directly over a fixed point on the equator as the earth rotates. These are called geosynchronous orbits. The radius of the earth is 6.37 x 10⁶ m, and the altitude of a geosynchronous orbit is 3.58 x 10⁷ m (≈ 22,000 miles). What are (a) the speed and (b) the magnitude of the acceleration of a satellite in a geosynchronous orbit?

The radius of the earth's very nearly circular orbit around the sun is 1.5 x 10¹¹ m. Find the magnitude of the earth's angular velocity.

The radius of the earth's very nearly circular orbit around the sun is 1.5 x 10¹¹ m. Find the magnitude of the earth's velocity.

As the earth rotates, what is the speed of a physics student in Miami, Florida, at latitude 26°. Ignore the revolution of the earth around the sun. The radius of the earth is 6400 km.

The earth's radius is about 4000 miles. Kampala, the capital of Uganda, and Singapore are both nearly on the equator. The distance between them is 5000 miles. The flight from Kampala to Singapore takes 9.0 hours. What is the plane's angular velocity with respect to the earth's surface? Give your answer in °/h.

Peregrine falcons are known for their maneuvering ability. In a tight circular turn, a falcon can attain a centripetal acceleration 1.5 times the free-fall acceleration. What is the radius of the turn if the falcon is flying at 25 m/s?