Uniform Circular Motion (UCM)

Essential Idea: A force applied perpendicular to its displacement can result in circular motion.

Understandings:

 Period, frequency, angular displacement and angular velocity

 Centripetal force
 Centripetal acceleration

Skills:

 Identifying the forces providing the centripetal forces such as tension, friction, gravitational, electrical, or
magnetic.

 Solving problems involving centripetal force, centripetal acceleration, period, frequency, angular
displacement, linear speed and angular velocity.

 Qualitatively and quantitatively describing examples of circular motion including cases of vertical and
horizontal circular motion.
19) A 2.5 kg ball is fixed on a 1.75 m rope and is set with a frequency of 1.45 Hz. Calculate: a) the period
of the ball; b) the speed of the ball; c) the centripetal acceleration the ball experiences; d) the
centripetal force applied on the ball. e) State the nature of the centripetal force acting here.

20) On a curved road, a 1350 kg Nissan® makes a perfect semicircular turn with an approximate radius
of 8.8 m while driving at constant speed of 35 m s-1. Calculate a) the centripetal acceleration and b)
the centripetal force. c) What is the nature of the centripetal force in this case?

21) Why is it considered impossible to make a perfect horizontal circle like image “a”, and rather what is
shown in image “b” is what happens?

a) b)
22) A force sensor of mass 252.3 g is attached to an 8.30 dm string and set in circular motion, generating
a tension of 13.2 N on the string. Calculate: a) the centripetal acceleration; b) the period; c) the
frequency.

23) What is the frequency of the “minutes” needle in a clock?

24) What is the frequency of the “seconds” needle in a clock?

25) A large clock on a building has a minute hand that is 4.2 m long. Calculate: a) the angular velocity on
the minute hand, b) the angular displacement (in radians and in degrees) in the time period from 12:00
to 14:30, and the linear speed of the tip of the minute hand.

26) At its peak, a tornado is 60.0 m in diameter and carries 500.0 km h-1 winds. Calculate the tornado’s
angular velocity in revolutions per second and in radians per second.
27) A stone turns 14 times in 3.0 s, forming a circle with diameter of 4.5 m. Calculate: a) the angular
velocity and b) the speed.

28) A mass of 72.0 hg stands on the edge of a disc that moves in circular motion describing a 7.54 m
circumference and having a frequency of 0.88 Hz. Calculate the: a) velocity; b) centripetal
acceleration; c) centripetal force. d) Identify the nature of the force.

29) What is the frequency of the “hours” needle in a clock?

30) A mass moves along a circle of radius 2.0 m with constant speed taking 3.0 s to makes one full
revolution. What is the acceleration of the mass? (Tsokos, 2008)

31) The radius of the Earth is 6.37 ×106 m. What is the centripetal acceleration experienced by someone
on the equator? (Tsokos, 2008)
32) A mass moves in a circle with constant speed in a counter-clockwise direction, as shown in the image
below. What is the direction of the velocity change when the mass moves from A to B? (Tsokos, 2008)

33) A disc rotates in UCM. Two ants are localized standing on the disc in different positions, A and B, as
shown in the image below. a) Which ant has a longer period? b) Which ant travels a longer distance
in one turn? c) Which ant travels faster?

34) What is the centripetal acceleration of a mass that moves in a circle of radius 2.45 m making 3.5
revolutions per second?

35) What would be the length of the day (in hours) if the centripetal acceleration at the equator were equal
to the acceleration due to gravity? (Earth’s radius is 6.37 ×106 m).
36) The following image shows a system that keeps a hanging weight in translational equilibrium. If this
weight has a mass of 4.3 kg, calculate the tangential velocity of the small mass “m” (1.30 kg) required
to keep the system in T.E if 5 N of friction are experienced and the system rotates with frequency of
1.03 Hz.

37) A 75.0 dag ball is hanging from a string and is sent to move with a velocity of 2.03 m s -1 generating a
circle with radius 29.0 cm. The situation is shown in the image below. a) Calculate the tension on the
string. b) Calculate the angle of elevation of the string (θ).

38) Moving in UCM with a frequency of 0.460 Hz, a 1.920 kg can hangs very similarly to the ball in the
previous problem (follow the same image). If the string that attaches the can to the pivoting point
measures 160 hm, calculate: a) the tension on the string and b) the value for θ.
39) A pendulum starts moving in UCM with an angle to the vertical of 27°. If the tension on the 1.20 m
string where the pendulum hangs from is 18.6 N, calculate a) the mass of the pendulum and b) the
frequency at which this pendulum moves.

40) A boy is playing with his pendulum toy making vertical circles (see image below). The string of the
pendulum is 45.6 cm long while the bob has a mass of 0.370 kg. When the boy finally gets a steady
motion (UCM), the frequency has a value of 1.45 Hz. Calculate: a) the centripetal force on the bob; b)
the tension experienced by the string when the bob is up; c) the tension experienced by the string
when the bob is down.

41) A cowboy is playing with his 1.75 m rope. He ties a 1.85 kg rock at the end of it using 0.45 m for this.
While the cowboy is playing making circles in the air, the rope tenses on 11.2 N when the rock is at
the top of the circle. Calculate the period of the rock.
Answers:

19) a) 0.690 s, b) 15.9 m s-1, c) 144 m s-2, d) 360 N, e)

tension.
20) a) 140 m s-2, b) 190 kN, c) friction.
21) Because there is always a force of weight pushing
downwards. The tension on the string will be the
vectorial addition of the centripetal force and the weight.
22) a) 52.3 m s-2, b) 0.792 s, c) 1.26 Hz.
23) 2.778 ×10-4 Hz.
24) 0.017 Hz.
25) a) 0.00175 rad s-1, b) 16 rad and 900°, c) 0.0073 m s-1.
26) a) 0.737 rev s-1, b) 4.63 rad s-1.
27) a) 29 rad s-1, b) 65 m s-1.
28) a) 6.64 m s-1, b) 36.7 m s-2, c) 260 N, d) friction.
29) 2315 ×10-5 Hz.
30) 8.8 m s-1.
31) 0.034 m s-2.
32)

33) a) None, both share the same period, b) B (travels over

a bigger circle), c) B (longer distance in the same
amount of time).
34) 1200 m s-2.
35) 1.4 h.
36) 5.6 m s-1.
37) a) 12.9 N, b) 55°.
38) a) 32 N, b) 54°.
39) a) 1.69 kg, b) 0.345 Hz.
40) a) 14.0 N, b) 10.4 N, c) 17.6 N.
41) 1.80 s.
42) f