SPH4U Dynamics 1

Centripetal Force: Problems

1. A 1200 kg car is going around an icy, banked curve. If the road is tilted 10, and the curve has a
radius of 750 m, how fast will the car need to go to make it around the curve? What will happen to
the car if it goes slower than this speed? What will happen if it goes faster? {36 m/s}

2. An airplane is flying at a speed of 340 km/h when the pilot banks the plane by 5.0, making it go
into a curve. What will the radius of the curve be? {1.0 10
4
m}

3. You have been asked to design a roller coaster track with a circular vertical loop in it. The loop is to
have a radius of 10.0 m. How fast would the roller coaster have to be traveling so that at the
bottom of the loop, the passengers will feel as if the seats are pressing on them with a force
equivalent to three times their normal weight? What would they feel at the top of the loop?
{14 m/s, F
seat
= mg}

4. An airplane with a speed of 68 m/s flies into a vertical loop. How large a loop should the plane fly in
if the pilot wants to feel weightless at the top of the loop (i.e. the pilot does not press on the seat
at the top of the loop)? How much force would the pilot feel from the seat at the bottom of the
loop? {r = 470 m, F
seat
= 2mg}

5. If a roller coaster travels at a speed of 22 m/s, what is the maximum diameter for a vertical loop
that it can go around so that the passengers don't fall out of their seats at the top of the loop?
{99 m}
6. A 0.25 kg mass is swinging around in a horizontal circle on the end of a 50 cm long string. The string
makes angle of 30 with vertical. What is the tension? {2.8 N}

7. If the Earth was to spin faster, the normal force between our feet and the ground would decrease.
How long would a day be if the Earth was spinning fast enough that we would feel no contact with
the ground? {1.4 h}