You have a summer job helping to design the opening ceremony for the next winter

ID: 2119778 • Letter: Y

Question

You have a summer job helping to design the opening ceremony for the next winter Olympics. One of the choreographer's ideas is to have skaters race out onto the ice and grab a very large ring (the symbol of the Olympics). Each ring is held horizontal at shoulder height by a vertical pole stuck into the ice. The pole is attached to the ring on its circumference so that the ring can rotate horizontally around the pole. The plan is to have the skater grab the ring at a point on the opposite side from where the pole is attached and, holding on, glide around the pole in a circle. You have been assigned the job of determining the minimum speed that the skater must have before grabbing the ring in terms of the radius of the ring, the mass of the ring, the mass of the skater, and the constant frictional force between the skates and the ice. The choreographer wants the skater and ring to go around the pole at least five times. The skater is to be moving tangent to the ring just before grabbing it.

force required to move in circular motion is given by F = mv^2/R

friction = v^2/rg

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.