Question

Sylvia and Jadon now want to work a problem. Imagine a puck of mass 0.5 kg moving as in the simulation. Suppose that the tension in the string is 1.0 N, and that the radius of its circular path is 0.7 m. What will Jadon and Sylvia find for the tangential speed of the puck? m/s

Answer 1

Answer:

1.2 m/s

Explanation:

The puck in this problem is moving with uniform circular motion, so the net force acting on it (the tension in the string) must be equal to the centripetal force.

So we can write:

$T=m\frac{v^2}{r}$

where:

T is the tension in the string

m is the mass of the puck

v is its tangential speed

r is the radius of the circular path

For the puck in this problem, we have:

m = 0.5 kg

T = 1.0 N

r = 0.7 m

Substituting and solving for v, we find the tangential speed:

$v=\sqrt{\frac{Tr}{m}}=\sqrt{\frac{(1.0)(0.7)}{0.5}}=1.2 m/s$