What is the correct formula for calculating centripetal acceleration?

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around calculating centripetal acceleration for a point on a bicycle wheel, specifically addressing the formula and unit conversions involved in the calculation.

Discussion Character

  • Mathematical reasoning, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • The original poster attempts to apply the formula for centripetal acceleration but questions the correctness of their result. Participants discuss the importance of unit conversion from centimeters to meters.

Discussion Status

Participants are actively engaging in clarifying the calculations and unit conversions. There is acknowledgment of potential errors in the original poster's calculations, but no consensus on the correct answer has been reached yet.

Contextual Notes

There is a specific mention of the need to convert the diameter from centimeters to meters, which may impact the calculations being discussed.

Sucks@Physics
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What is the centripetal acceleration of a point on the perimeter of a bicycle wheel of diameter 70 cm when the bike is moving 7.0m/s?

I thought the formula was v^2/r =ac

But when I do that i get 1.4m/s^2 and it is not the right answer. Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong, or if I've used the wrong formula? Thanks
 
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Realize that the diameter is given in cm. Change to meters.
 
I did. (7m/s)^2/.35m = 140m/s
 
Sorry that was supposed to be 1.4x10^2 in the first post
 
Sucks@Physics said:
Sorry that was supposed to be 1.4x10^2 in the first post
I don't see anything wrong with that answer, assuming you gave proper units.
 

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