In: Physics
An airplane’s propeller blades slow down to 2rev/s in 5s, making 200rev in the process. Assuming a constant acceleration, what was the blades’ angular speed before starting to slow down? Answer: 4680 rpm
The blade traverses 200 rev in 5s.
We can use the kinematics equation,
is the angular displacement, angular speed of the blades before slowing down is , is the angular acceleration and t denotes the time.
Given, in time t=5 s
Putting the value,
We also use another kinematic equation,
is the angular velocity after time t which is given as
Putting the values,
Using this value in equation (i) we have
Hence, we have,
Converting this into rpm we have
This is the blade's angular speed before slowing down.