a) 1.57 m/s
The sock spins once every 2.0 seconds, so its period is
T = 2.0 s
Therefore, the angular velocity of the sock is
The linear speed of the sock is given by
where
is the angular velocity
r = 0.50 m is the radius of the circular path of the sock
Substituting, we find:
B) Faster
In this case, the drum is twice as wide, so the new radius of the circular path of the sock is twice the previous one:
At the same time, the drum spins at the same frequency as before, therefore the angular frequency as not changed:
Therefore, the new linear speed would be:
And substituting,
So, we see that the linear speed has doubled.