A student is swinging a 9 kg ball in a circular path in the vertical plane. Consider the instant when the string is horizontal as the ball is on its way up as shown in the figure. At this instant, the instantaneous tangential speed is 6 m/s, and the radius is 6 m. What is the centripetal acceleration?

Answer 1

centripetal acceleration = mass * velocity^2 / radius
mass = 9kg
velocity = 6 m/s
radius = 6 m
centripetal acceleration = 9 * (6)^2 / 6
centripetal acceleration = 54