Can someone help me solve this problem?
Gregg Reid of Atlanta, Georgia, built a motorcycle that is over 4.5 m long and has a mass of 235 kg. The force that holds Reid and his motorcycle in a circular path with a radius of 27.9 m is 1850 N. What is Reid's tangential speed? Assume Reid's mass is 84 kg.
2007-11-09 04:05:11 · 2 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
The centripetal force is given by
F = mv²/r
where m is the (total) mass, v is the tangential speed, and r is the radius of the circular path.
2007-11-09 04:49:10 · answer #1 · answered by Ron W 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First of all, I would suggest that the provided information about the length of the motorcycle is "extra" - that is, it is not needed to solve the problem. In any event, the problem says that the motorcycle is "over 4.5m," which could mean that the motorcycle has a length of anywhere between 4.5 m and infinity!
You need the following equation: F = m*v^2 / r. In this equation...
F = the force needed to keep an object in a circular path
m = the mass of the object
v = the tangential speed (AHA!) of the object
r = the radius of the circular path
You should be able to rearrange that equation to solve for v in terms of the other variables with a little algebra. Note that, in this case, the mass m will have to be the *combined* mass of the motorcycle *and* Gregg Reid.
2007-11-09 13:28:10 · answer #2 · answered by AxiomOfChoice 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋