Questions on Circular Motion
1. Complete these sentences to ensure you know the main Idea:
a. In UCM the velocity is found by the formula______________________
b. The acceleration is found by the formula______________________
c. The centripetal force is found by the formula_____________________
d. The period is related to the frequency by the formula__________________
e. The greater the period the __________ the period.
f. The greater the speed the _________ the acceleration and the ____________ the frequency
g. For all UCM the acceleration must be at ____________ angles to the _____________
h. For all UCM the acceleration must be ____________ to the centripetal force.
i. Angular velocity is the number of ____________ covered per second. Its symbol is _______.
2. On the Diagram below show the direction of the velocity and acceleration of the object undergoing
uniform circular motion.
3. A ball is on a string of length 0.7 m. It is in uniform circular motion taking 0.5 seconds to get around
once.
Find the:
a. Period
b. Frequency
c. Speed
d. Acceleration
4. An object is moving in a horizontal circle of radius 3m at 4m/s. Find the:
a. Period
b. Centripetal acceleration
5. What is the centripetal acceleration of a car rounding a corner of radius 150m travelling at 100 kph?
6. An object is in a circular path and moving at 3 m/s. The radius of the path is 2m. Find the:
a. Period
b. Frequency
c. Centripetal acceleration
7. Find the centripetal velocity and acceleration of the Earth around the Sun. (the radius of the Earth’s
orbit is 1.5 x 108 km
8. An object is experiencing an acceleration of 3m s−2 . It’s period of motion is 2 s. Find the radius and
the speed of the motion.
9. A mass of 0.1kg is whirled in a horizontal circle with a constant speed of 2.4 m/s on the end of a
string 1.0 m long.
a. What is the magnitude and direction of the acceleration?
b. What is the tension in the string?
10. A locomotive a model railway has a mass of 0.40kg. It travels around a circular tank of radius 2.4m
with a constant speed of 0.50 m/s.
a. What is the acceleration of the train?
b. What is the net force acting on the train? (where would that force come from?)
11. A mass of 1.5 kg has an acceleration of 13.5 m s−2 while being whirled in a circle of radius 1.00m.
What is the constant speed of the mass?
12. A small girl of mass 20kg rides on a horse on a merry go round 4.0m from the centre. The merry go
round makes 3.6 revolutions per minute.
a. What is the speed of the girl?
b. What is the linear speed of the girl?
c. What is the net force on the girl?
13. A mass of 4.0kg is swung on a 0.4m string with tension 0.80N at a constant speed. Find:
a. The acceleration of the object
b. Speed of the object
c. Period of motion
d. Number of revolutions made every minute.
14. Mass on a string experiment. Here is a set of equipment used to study centripetal force.
a. What provides the centripetal force?
b. How could it be calculated?
c. How could it be measured?
d. Find the hanging mass required to
allow the small mass of 40g to rotate
at a rate of 5 revolutions per second.
Radius of 50 cm.
15. A car goes around a bend.
a. what is the force that is providing the centripetal force?_____________________
b. If the car doubled the speed what happens to the centripetal force?
c. If the car has the original speed but we doubled the mass what happens to the centripetal
force?
d. If one car has triple the speed and triple the mass what happens to the centripetal force?
e. Why is the in question d more likely to crash? Explain in terms of formula and physics.
f. A car of mass 3x103 goes around a bend radius 10 m at 5m/s. What is the force required by
the friction with the road?
g. What is the maximum safe speed for a 3x103 car to go around a 7m radius bend if the
friction between the tyre and road is 100 kN?
16. A 600 kg racing car takes 12.0s to travel at a constant speed around a circular racing track of radius
60.0m.
a. What is the average force that the car’s tyres must exert against the track to maintain this
circular motion?
b. What is the acceleration of the car?
