Period and Frequency - AP Physics 1

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Question

An astronaut in space has a ball of mass attached to the end of a string of length . The ball is spun in a horizontal circle. If the string breaks under a force of , what is the minimum period at which the ball can be spun?

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Answer

Since the man is in space, the only force we have to worry about in this problem is the centripetal force, which results from the tension in the spring. Therefore, we are being asked what period gives us a centripetal force of .

We need an expression for velocity:

Substitute this back into the original expression:

Rearranging for period we get:

We know all of these values, allowing us to solve:

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