Question

Astronauts experience high acceleration in their flights in space. In the training centres for such situations, they are placed in a closed capsule, which is fixed at the end of a revolving arm of radius 15 m. The capsule is whirled around in a circular path, just like the way we whirl a stone tied to a string in a horizontal circle. If the arm revolves at a rate of 24 revolutions per minute, calculate the centripetal acceleration of the capsule.

Answer 1

The circumference of the circular path is 2π × (radius) = 2π × 15 m. Since the capsule makes 24 revolutions per minute or 60 s, the time it takes to go once around this circumference is 60/24 s. Therefore,

speed of the capsule, 

The magnitude of the centripetal acceleration

Note that centripetal acceleration is about 10 times the acceleration due to gravity