Question

A child attaches a rubber ball to a string and whirls it around in a circle overhead. If the string is 0.2m long and the ball's speed is 16 m/s, what is the ball's centripetal acceleration?

Answer 1

Answer:

The centripetal acceleration, $a_c = 1280 m/s^2$

Explanation:

Centripetal acceleration is given by the formula:

$a_c = \frac{v^2}{r}$

Where the speed of the ball, v = 16 m/s

Length of the string, r = 0.2 m

Substituting these parameters into the centripetal equation above:

$a_c = \frac{16^2}{0.2}\\a_c = \frac{256}{0.2}\\a_c = 1280 m/s^2$