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Homework Statement
A merry-go-round in a playground has a radius of about 2 m and a mass of about 400 kg. Starting from rest, a parent begins to rotate it with constant angular acceleration. After 5 s, it reaches its final angular velocity of about pi/2 rad/s, and continues to rotate at that angular velocity
a.
Treat the merry-go-round as a uniform disk (the moment of inertia of a uniform disk is mr2/2); the final rotational kinetic energy of the merry-go-round is about ___ J.
b.
5 children, each with a mass of about 20 kg, step on the merry-go-round and stay near its edge. As they step on it, its angular velocity drops to about ____ rad/s. Ignore friction.
Homework Equations
I_disk=0.5mr^2
KE_rotational=0.5*I*w^2
The Attempt at a Solution
For part a I did...
KE=(0.5)(0.5)(400)(2^2)(pi/2)^2=987 J
For part b I did...
KE_i=KE_f
987 = 0.5(100)(2^2)(w^2) + 0.5(0.5)(400)(2^2)(w^2)
and get w=1.3 but the answer is supposed to be 1.0. Is mr^2 the correct way to do the kid's intertia?
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