Centripital Problem: Solving an Old Streetcar Challenge

[cd80187]

Here is a homework problem that has really thrown me off.

An old streetcar rounds a flat corner of radius 9.4 m, at 14 km/h. What angle with the vertical will be made by the loosely hanging hand straps?

Clearly this has to do with centriptal force pushing out on the vehicle, but I really have no clue where to even start. If anyone could help me even to get started, that would be great. Clearly due to the lack of information, more than one euqation will be used to cancel out certain unknowns (such as mass), but I am not sure where to incorporate angles with centripetal acceleration, which is the only thing you can really figure out from the information given.

 

[Doc Al]

It might be easier to imagine a small object hanging by a string tied to the ceiling of the streetcar. Find the angle the string makes by analyzing the forces acting on the object; you know it must be centripetally accelerating as it makes the turn.