A woman rides on a Ferris wheel of radius 16m that maintains the same speed thro

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. Show all work. The answer is not 8 kg.

Explanation / Answer

at the highest point :, force equation is given as

Fmin = mg - mv2/r                       eq--1

at the lowest point :, force equation is given as

Fmax = mg + mv2/r                          eq--2

adding eq-1 and eq-2

Fmin + Fmax = mg + mg

510 + 666 = 2 m (9.8)

m = 60 kg

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