(a) 11.0 s
Let's start by writing the equations of the forces along the horizontal and vertical direction. We need to resolve the tension along the cable, T, along the two directions. Therefore we get:
- Vertical direction:
(1)
where
T is the tension in the cable
is the angle with the vertical
m is the mass of the passenger and the seat
is the acceleration of gravity
- Horizontal direction: here the component of the tension in the cable provides the centripetal force, so we can write
(2)
where
is the angular velocity
is the distance from the central shaft (the radius of the circular path)
Dividing eq.(2) by eq.(1), we get
And re-arranging the equation, we can find the angular velocity:
And the time for one revolution is equal to the period, so:
(b) No
As we have seen previously, the equation obtained for the angle is given by
where
is the angular velocity
r is the radius of the circular path
g is the acceleration of gravity
As we can see, in this equation m (the mass of the passenger) does not appear: this means that the angle does not depend on the mass (or the weight) of the passenger.