Question

A child whirls a 3.00 kg ball on a string .50 m from the axis of rotation in a horizontal circle. The ball makes 1 revolution in 1.0 s. a) What is the centripetal acceleration of the ball? b) What is the tension in the string?

Answer 1

Answers:

a) $0.5 m/s^{2}$

b) $1.5 N$

Explanation:

a) The centripetal acceleration $a_{c}$ of an object moving in a uniform circular motion is given by the following equation:  

$a_{c}=\omega^{2} r$  

Where:

$\omega=1 \frac{rev}{s}$ is the angular velocity of the ball

$r=0.5 m$ is the radius of the circular motion, which is equal to the length of the string

Then:

$a_{c}=(1 \frac{rev}{s})^{2} 0.5 m$  

$a_{c}=0.5 m/s^{2}$ This is the centripetal acceleration of the ball

b) On the other hand, in this circular motion there is a force (centripetal force $F$) that is directed towards the center and is equal to the tension ($T$) in the string:

$F=T=m. a_{c}$

Where $m=3 kg$ is the mass of the ball

Hence:

$T=(3 kg)(0.5 m/s^{2})$

$T=1.5 N$ This is the tension in the string