I'm lost on this angular acceleration problem

[falcon0311]

Okay, so there's a car traveling 97km/h (26.94 m/s). It's wheels have a diameter of 76cm (0.76 m), so the radius of the wheels are 0.38 m. I'm supposed to find the angular speed of the wheels about the axle.

Can I say the speed of a tangent from the wheels is 26.94 m/s and use that to find the angular velocity?

 

[curious george]

Originally posted by falcon0311

Can I say the speed of a tangent from the wheels is 26.94 m/s and use that to find the angular velocity?

Yes, that's exactly what you should do. 26.94 m/s is the velocity of a point on the outer rim of the wheel, so you can use that to calculate the angular frequency of the wheel.

 

[Chen]

http://physics.about.com/cs/rotationalmotion/a/010703.htm

 

[falcon0311]

Thanks a bunch Chen!