Centripetal Acceleration of North Pole

[lacar213]

Homework Statement

Consider the radius of the Earth to be 6.38×106 m. What is the magnitude of the centripetal acceleration experienced by a person (a) at the equator and (b) at the North Pole due to the Earth's rotation?

Homework Equations

a = V^2 / r

The Attempt at a Solution

I drew a diagram of what the problem describes but how do you get the acceleration without knowing the velocity?? Would it have something to do with angular speed??

 

[Doc Al]

Would it have something to do with angular speed??

Exactly. You can express the centripetal acceleration in terms of angular speed. (How does angular speed relate to velocity for circular motion?)

 

[lacar213]

angular = radians / s

 

[lacar213]

Wouldnt you need to know the time for angular velocity?

 

[Doc Al]

angular = radians / s

Radians/sec are certainly the units for angular velocity, but I was thinking of the relationship between angular velocity and tangential velocity. Read this: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/HBASE/rotq.html#avel"

Wouldnt you need to know the time for angular velocity?

What's the angular velocity of the Earth's rotation?