Question

A woman rides on a Ferris wheel of radius 16m that maintains the same speed throughout its motion. To better understand physics, she takes along a digital bathroom scale (with memory) and sits on it. When she gets off the ride, she uploads the scale readings to a computer and creates a graph of scale reading versus time. (Figure 1) Note that the graph has a minimum value of 510N and a maximum value of 666N. The acceleration due to gravity, g=9.80m/s2. What is the woman's mass? Express your answer in kilograms.

Answer 1

here,

radius , r = 16 m

let the mass be m and the constant speed be v

the minimum value is at the top

m*g- m * v^2 /r = 510

m * ( 9.8 - v^2 /16) = 510 ....(1)

and

at the bottom

m*g + m*v^2/r = 666

m * ( 9.8 + v^2/16) = 666 ....(2)

from (1) and (2)

m = 60 kg , v = 4.56 m/s

the mass of the woman is 60 kg