Centripetal Force Practice Problems
1. A child is spinning a ball at the end of a string in a circle. If the mass of the ball is
0.64 kg and the ball completes 12 revolutions in 6.37 s at the end of a 0.945 m
string.
a. What is the period of the ball?
b)What is the linear speed of the ball?
c)What is the centripetal acceleration of the ball?
d)Draw a Free body Diagram of the forces acting on the ball.
e)What is the Centripetal Force acting on the string?
2)A plastic ball with a mass of 3.5 kg moves in a circular path with a radius of 25 cm at a
constant 2 revs/s.
a)Find the period of the ball.
b)Find the centripetal acceleration of the ball.
c)Draw a Free Body Diagram of the force acting on the ball.
d)Find the centripetal force acting on the ball.
3. The Sphere of Death used by motorcycle stunt men has a radius of 5.31 m. What is the
centripetal force acting on the person by the sphere when the rider is circling about the
equator of the sphere if they have a period of 0.23 s/rev and a mass of 90 kg?
4)Let’s analyze the spinning Earth whose radius is 6.38 x106 m and completes one spin
each day.
a.
What is the speed of a person standing on the equator as the Earth rotates about its
axis?
b)What is the centripetal acceleration of the person?
c)If the person had a mass of 120 kg, what is the Centripetal force on the person?
5)The Gravitron at the local amusement park has a period of 0.33 s/rev with a radius of 3.0
m.
a)What is the speed of a point on the circumference of the Gravitron?
b)If a 124 kg person is standing on the edge of the Gravitron while it is spinning, what is the
magnitude and direction of the centripetal force?
6. A 1010 kg car travels around a circular skid pad that has a radius of 30 m. The
magnitude of the centripetal force acting on the car is 2020 N.
a. Draw a Free Body Diagram of the forces acting on the car while it is traveling in the
circular path.
b. Find the centripetal acceleration of the car.
c. Find the tangential or linear speed of the car.