A Ferris wheel has a radius of 35m and starts at 2m above the ground. It rotates once every 53 second.

Question

a) determine the cosine equation of the graph, if the rider gets on at the lowest point.
b) what is the height of the rider at 81 seconds?

Answer 1

since cos(x) starts at a maximum, you must have

-cos(x)

The radius is 35, so

y = -35cos(x)

It starts at y=2, so the axle is at y=37:

y = 37-35cos(x)

The period is 53, so

y = 37-35cos(2pi/53 x)

now just do what you need with that.

Answer 2

Thank you so much! This was so helpful! Really appreciate it