1. Oct 22, 2006

### metalmagik

There is a clever kitchen gadget for drying lettuce leaves after you wash them. It consists of a cylindrical container mounted so that it can be rotated about its axis by turning a hand crank. The outer wall of the cylinder is perforated with small holes. You put the wet leaves in the container and turn the crank to spin off the water. The radius of the container is 11 cm. When the cylinder is rotating at 2.2 revolutions per second, what is the magnitude of the centripetal acceleration at the outer wall?

I got 18 $m/s^2$ for this. Can anyone confirm this with me, or if not, work it through with me? I'm having a very bad night with physics, thanks.

2. Oct 22, 2006

### Astronuc

Staff Emeritus
It would help if one wrote the equation for centripetal acceleration.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/circ.html#circ

One revolution is 2$\pi$ radians, and one must use radians when dealing with angular displacement, angular velocity or angular acceleration.

So 2.2 rps gives $\omega$=4.4$\pi$ radians/sec,

and v = $\omega$r