Question

As you ride on a Ferris wheel, your apparent weight is different at the top than at the bottom.

1-Explain this phenomenon.

2-Calculate your apparent weight at the bottom of the Ferris wheel,given that the radius of the wheel is 7.2m, it completes one revolution every 28s, and your mass is 60kg.

3-Suppose the Ferris wheel were rotating just fast enough to make you feel weightless at the top. How many seconds would it take if to complete one revolution? [Assume the radius of the wheel is still 7.2m.]

Answer 1

Ferris wheel physics is directly related to centripetal acceleration, which results in the riders feeling "heavier" or "lighter" depending on their position on the Ferris wheel.
The Ferris wheel consists of an upright wheel with passenger gondolas (seats) attached to the rim. These gondolas can freely pivot at the support where they are connected to the Ferris wheel. As a result, the gondolas always hang downwards at all times as the Ferris wheel spins.

To analyze the Ferris wheel physics, we must first simplify the problem. The figure below shows a schematic of the Ferris wheel, illustrating the essentials of the problem.



Where:

(1) is the top-most position and (2) is the bottom-most position

Point P is where the gondolas are attached to the Ferris wheel

Point C is where the passengers sit (on the gondola)

R is the radius of the Ferris wheel

w is the angular velocity of the Ferris wheel, in radians/s

The forces acting on the passengers are due to the combined effect of gravity and centripetal acceleration, caused by the rotation of the Ferris wheel with angular velocity w.

We wish to analyze the forces acting on the passengers at locations (1) and (2). The figure below shows a free-body diagram for the passengers at these locations.