- #1
fleabass123
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Homework Statement
The given information is:
A Ferris wheel with a radius of 9.0 m rotates at a constant rate, completing one revolution every 37 s.
Suppose the Ferris wheel begins to decelerate at the rate of 0.22 rad/s^2 when the passenger is at the top of the wheel.
(1) Find the magnitude of the passenger's acceleration at that time.
(2) Find the direction of the passenger's acceleration at that time.
Homework Equations
a_c=r*w^2
a_t=r*alpha
The Attempt at a Solution
I tried to find the acceleration at the top using those formulas and couldn't get it. I thought I should try total acceleration using a= sqrt(a_c^2+a_t^2) and got 0.260 m/s, but that was no good either. Honestly what is really confusing me is what exactly I'm finding; I've calculated several types of acceleration during this homework so I'm not sure what just the "passenger's acceleration" is. Because of part two I'm guessing I need to incorporate vectors somehow, but I can't figure out what approach to take.
Thanks for any help!