Physics Day at Great America Stay at Home Packet
Physics Day at Great America Stay at Home Packet
Physics Day at Great America Stay at Home Packet
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<strong>Physics</strong> <strong>Day</strong> <strong>at</strong> Gre<strong>at</strong> <strong>America</strong> <strong>Stay</strong> <strong>at</strong> <strong>Home</strong> <strong>Packet</strong> Name __________________<br />
Period_______ Teacher_____________________ D<strong>at</strong>e_____________<br />
Carousel<br />
(1) Use the following d<strong>at</strong>a to find the centripetal acceler<strong>at</strong>ion from the equ<strong>at</strong>ion a c – v 2 /r<br />
Time for one complete revolution: 12 seconds<br />
Distance of rider from center: 8.0 meters<br />
(hint average speed = circumference/time for one revolution)<br />
(show work and circle answer in m/s 2 )<br />
(2) Wh<strong>at</strong> would be the centripetal acceler<strong>at</strong>ion for a rider only 4.0 m from center?<br />
(3) At center?<br />
(4) Wh<strong>at</strong> force keeps the standing rider (not holding on) going around the circle?<br />
(5) How fast would the ride need to go for the centripetal acceler<strong>at</strong>ion to be one g?<br />
(show all work)<br />
1
Drop Zone<br />
Suppose the free fall ride part of the ride lasts 3.2 seconds. Use equ<strong>at</strong>ions from your text<br />
or the St<strong>at</strong>e Reference Sheet to find<br />
(a) your speed <strong>at</strong> the end of the free fall interval<br />
(b) the height of the free fall interval<br />
Drop zone riders are brought to a stop primarily by magnetic braking. Use your<br />
knowledge of physics and possibly Internet research to explain how this works. Why<br />
does the last bit of vertical speed have to be removed by a different method? ie. Why<br />
can’t magnetic braking be used to bring riders to a complete stop?<br />
Roller Coasters<br />
Find the speed of a roller coaster car <strong>at</strong> the bottom of a 27 meter frictionless hill. Use<br />
conserv<strong>at</strong>ion of energy. Show equ<strong>at</strong>ion and all work.<br />
Find the potential energy of a 1000 Kg roller coaster <strong>at</strong> the top of a 27 m hill.<br />
Where on the ride would you expect the acceler<strong>at</strong>ion (net force over mass) to be<br />
gre<strong>at</strong>est? Least? Draw free body diagrams showing all the forces acting on a weight<br />
hanging from a spring scale accelerometer and give reasons for your answers.<br />
2
Loop Rides<br />
Do research to find out and explain why loops on amusement park rides such as Top Gun<br />
are not circular but r<strong>at</strong>her a shape called a Klothoid Loop. Write your explan<strong>at</strong>ion in one<br />
or two short paragraphs below. Do not copy sentences from the Internet or another<br />
source. The explan<strong>at</strong>ion must be in your own words.<br />
Use the equ<strong>at</strong>ion F n – mg = mv 2 /r to calcul<strong>at</strong>e the upward force the se<strong>at</strong> of a roller<br />
coaster car exerts on a 60 Kg passenger <strong>at</strong> the bottom of a loop with a 10 meter effective<br />
radius <strong>at</strong> a speed of 10 m/s. Also calcul<strong>at</strong>e the centripetal acceler<strong>at</strong>ion v 2 /r under these<br />
conditions. Is this safe? Explain why or why not.<br />
3