A Rotating Pulsar

Skomatth

A pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star that emits a radio beam the way a lighthouse emits a light beam. We receive a radio pulse for each rotation of the star. The period T of rotation is found by measuring the time between pulses. The pulsar in the Crab nebula has a period of rotation of T=.033s that is increasing at the rate of 1.26 x 10^-5 s/y

a)What is the pulsar's angular acceleration?
I know that T=2pi/w when omega is constant. Does it make sense to that that T(t)=2pi/w(t) ? If this is correct then I can get the answer, but even if it is correct I'm not sure why it works.

Danger

I can't do the math. Just remember that the beams are emitted from the magnetic poles of the star, so you can expect that once in a while the orientation will be such that we receive two pulses per revolution. I don't know if any currently known ones are like that, though.

Skomatth

Judging by the context of the problem this is irrelevant.

Doc Al

Makes sense to me. Note that the rate of change of the period is so slow that for all practical purposes the angular speed hardly changes during one revolution.