Recent content by Risca

Ah, gotcha. Thanks for the help, studying for first year final and this question just had me stumped.

So, the forces at the top of the hill acting on the car are: Fg - Force of gravity and the force caused by the radial acceleration of the car, F=mv2/r. These two forces need to equal zero for the car to maintain contact with the road at the very top of the hill so, Fnet = mg+mv = 0. mg =...

Ok, so using the Newton's second law, F=ma where a in this case is radial acceleration. a=v2/r From here, I get v2 = (F*r)/m so that the maximum KE = 1/2F*r? Am I supposed to be able to get an actual numerical value for v? or am I completely missing something about this problem.

So, at the top of the hill, KE = mgh-mg(10) if I have the slightest clue as to what I'm doing in this question. I'm really unsure as to what to do after this however. I'm not seeing the relationship between the 2 separate circles and how they affect the starting height. I can understand the...

Homework Statement A roller coaster car on the frictionless track shown in the figure below starts from rest at height h. The track's valley and hill consist of circular-shaped segments of radius R. Find the formula for the maximum height h_max for the car to start so as to not fly off the...