Tethebal| problem, radial acceleration, angle of ball orbit

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izforgoat
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Homework Statement



This is a concept/procedure question. I am playing teth3rbalI with a 1 kilogran ball and it is tied to a meterlong string. When I hit the ball it circles the pole at 1.6 Hz. Find the anglethat the string makes with thepole.

Homework Equations


a[tex]_{r}[/tex]=v[tex]^{2}[/tex]/r
a[tex]_{r}[/tex]=(4[tex]\pi[/tex][tex]^{2}[/tex]r)/T[tex]^{2}[/tex]

T=1/f
f[tex]_{r}[/tex]=ma[tex]_{r}[/tex]

The Attempt at a Solution



So I found the period for one cycle but that's basically it and I'm stuck without a radius or at least a velocity to go by. What am I overlooking?
 

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The whirling string has to make an angle, say 'x', with the vertical in the downward direction. It lies on a cone, whose semi-vertical angle is 'x'. If 'T' is the tension in the string, then mg=T*cos(x). The centipetal force is T*sin(x). The mass m travels in a horizontal plane.

Now you try for a while.
 
hmmm

k so wow, i' not getting very far at all on this.

since Tcos(x) = mg then Tcos(x) = 9.8 N and since T sin(x) = centripedalforce then Tsin= 1kg((4[tex]\pi[/tex][tex]^{2}[/tex]r)/(.625[tex]^{2}[/tex]))

I'm slightly nervous proceeding since my next move would be to do a pythagoras of 9.8[tex]^{2}[/tex] + ((4[tex]\pi[/tex][tex]^{2}[/tex]r)/TimePeriod[tex]^{2}[/tex])[tex]^{2}[/tex] = T[tex]^{2}[/tex] which doesn't seem right nor does it make me any more confident.
 
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kk think i got it but does the mass cancel out?
 
It'd be neater if you didn't write the values of g etc in every step. Use symbols and plug in the values later.

Yes, the mass cancels out.

The centripetal force is m*w^2*r= T*sin x.

tan x = Tsin x/Tcos x = mw^2*r/mg =rw^2/g.

You know the value of r, and w is given.
 
izforgoat said:
kk think i got it but does the mass cancel out?

If you look at Shooting Star's post this should become apparent.

It would also help if you formatted your posts in a more readable way. For example [ tex] [ /tex] tags should be used for LaTeX set on its own, whereas you should use [ itex] [ /itex] tags for inline maths. Furthermore, it would help if you either did all your equations in tex, or none of them, since that would prevent strange mixed formatting.

Just a few thoughts, anyway.