Uniform Circular Motion

AP Style Free Response

1. A light string is connected to two known masses, m1 and m2, and passes through a
cylindrical tube. A student holds the tube and swings the apparatus so that m1 goes
in a horizontal circle of radius,, r, while m2 hangs down. The student wants to use
this apparatus to experimentally determine the acceleration due to gravity g. There
is no friction between the string and tube and m2 is larger than m1.

a. Put a check in the blank next to each piece of equipment needed for the
experiment. Outline the experimental procedure you would use to gather the
necessary data. Make sure the outline contains enough detail so that another
student could follow your procedure. Include at least one method for minimizing
uncertainty.
___ A meterstick ___ A stopwatch
___ A spring scale ___ A protractor
___ A balance ___ Masses of various sizes
___ Marker ___ Tape

b. Derive an equation to find g using the measurements described in your

procedure in terms of m1, m2, r, T and fundamental constants.

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 c. The table shows data from an experiment with the same apparatus that is being
done to determine the relationship between tension and rotational velocity.
The length of the string measured from the top of the tube to the swinging
mass m1 is r. The hanging mass is m2. Which five trials would be most useful
in creating a graph to determine the relationship between tension and
rotational velocity for a fixed swinging mass? Explain why the trials you
selected are best.

Trial 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
0.3 0.3
r (m) 0.30 0.30 0.30 0.30 0.40 0.40
0 0
0.6 0.9
m2 (kg) 0.50 0.70 0.80 1.0 1.1 1.2
0 0
FT (N) 4.8 6.0 6.9 11 8.7 9.9 11 12.0
v (m/s) 3.8 4.2 4.5 4.8 5.1 5.4 6.6 6.9

d. How will the tension in the string change if mass m2 suddenly starts moving
upward?
___ increase ___ decrease ___ stay the same
Justify your answer.

e. The student claims that when you swing the apparatus very quickly, the string
holding m1 will swing horizontally. Is this claim correct?
___ Yes ___ No
Explain your answer without deriving an equation.

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2. A student swings a ball with mass m overhead in a horizontal circle from the end of a
light string at an angle θ with respect to the vertical at constant speed v0. The ball is
at a height h above the ground.

a. Draw the forces on the ball on the dot provided below.

b. Derive an expression for the radius of the ball’s circular orbit in terms of θ, v o and
g.

c. The string breaks as the object is moving at speed v1. Derive the equation for the
time it takes to fall to the ground.

d. The speed of the ball is doubled before the string breaks. The student swinging
the ball predicts that the horizontal range of the ball will increase. Is the student
correct?

_____ Yes _____ No

Explain your answer.

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3. A ball of mass M is attached to a light string of length L moves in a counterclockwise
vertical circle. The ball just clears the ground at the bottom of the circle. At the
bottom of the circle the tension in the string is four times the weight of the ball.

a. Derive an equation for the velocity of the ball at the bottom of the circle in terms
of L and physical constants.

b. The ball slows down as it goes from A to B to C but continues to move in a circle
with the same radius. Rank the tension in the string from largest to smallest for
locations A, B, and C. In a clear, coherent paragraph-length response that may
also contain diagrams and/or equations, explain your reasoning.

c. Student 1 and Student 2 are predicting where the ball will go when the string is
released at location B. Student 1 says that the ball will go straight up into the air
and then fall back down along the same path. Student 2 says that the ball will
go to the right and land on the ground.

i. Which student’s reasoning is correct?

_____ Student 1 _____ Student 2
Explain your answer without deriving an equation.
ii. The ball is swinging with a velocity, vo, at location B. Derive an equation for
the maximum height of the projectile.

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4. A penny of mass, m, sits on a turntable as shown.
A student turns the turntable on and turns a knob that
controls how fast the surface of the turntable moves.
The student notices that at some speeds the penny
does not slide. She wants to find the maximum
coefficient of static friction µS between the penny
and the surface.
Image credit:
https://pixabay.com/vectors/turntable-
a. Design an experimental procedure to find µS with
record-player-antique-297877/
the given setup. Describe the procedure to be
used, list measurements, symbols for those measurements, and equipment
needed to make them.

b. Derive an equation to find µS using the quantities found in part (a) and physical
constants.

c. The student wants to determine the maximum amount of static friction force when
the penny is at different locations on the turntable. She finds the period of the
turntable’s rotation before each penny slides and uses that to make the graph
above. Can she find the maximum static friction force using the graph?
_____ Yes _____ No
Explain your answer.
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 d. The student moves the penny closer to the axis of rotation. She reasons that she
can play the turntable at a higher speed before the penny starts to slip. Is her
reasoning correct?

_____ Yes _____ No

Explain your answer.

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 5. A roundtable rotates around its center at a constant speed. A small sphere is
attached to one end of a string with a length of L = 0.5 m. The second end of the
string is tied to the tip of a vertical rod that is fixed to the table at a distance
r = 0.2 m from the center. When the table is revolving the string makes an angle
of θ = 30 ̊ with the vertical.

a. On the diagram below, show all the applied forces (not the components) on
the sphere. Indicate the direction of the net force and the acceleration of
the sphere.

b. Derive an expression that can be used to find the speed of the sphere in
terms of L, r, θ and fundamental constants.

c. Calculate the speed of the sphere.

d. Find the period of revolution.

e. Keeping the same speed, the rod is moved close to the center of the table.
The angle between the string and vertical is _____.
larger______ smaller_______ the same_______

Explain your reasoning.

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 6. A small block is placed on the bottom of an empty bowl, with radius, r = 0.1m, in
the shape of a hemisphere. When the bowl starts rotating at a constant
frequency, f = 2.5 Hz, the block rises to a height of h and an angle, θ, with the
vertical.

a. On the diagram below, show all the applied forces on the block and
indicate the direction of the acceleration.

b. Derive an expression for the angle θ in terms of r, f, and fundamental

constants.

c. Calculate the angle between the radius r and vertical.

d. Find the height, h, from the bottom of the ball to the location of the block
when the bowl is rotating.

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Uniform Circular Motion
AP Style Free Response
Answer Key

1. Ball and a string 1

a. Meterstick, stopwatch, marker, masses of various sizes. Use the marker (or
alternatively a piece of tape) to mark a spot on the string below the tube. Place
the mark even with the edge of the tube and measure the length of the string
from the top of the tube to m1. This is the radius that will be used in
calculations. Swing the device at a speed such that the mark stays at the same
location just at the bottom of the tube. The string is not accelerating up or down
so by Newton’s Second Law, the net force acting on m2 is zero. The net force
acting on m2 is zero, so the tension in the string is equal to m2g.
Use the stopwatch to measure how long it takes m1 to complete ten rotations,
to minimize the uncertainty in the measurement. If a rotation takes 3 s, and the
uncertainty in the time measurement is ±1 s, then the uncertainty is 33% of the
measurement of the period. If ten rotations are timed at 30 s, and the
measurement uncertainty is still ±1 s, then the uncertainty is only 3.3% of the
measurement of the period.
The collected data can be used to find the period. Replace m2 with a different
mass and repeat the process to find the time for ten rotations.

b. ∑ F=ma
T −m2 g=m2 a2 a 2=0 T =m2 g
2
v
T =m 1 a1=m1
r
2 2 2
v 2 πr 4π r
2
m1 =m2 g v= v=
r T T
2

2
4π r
m1 2
=m2 g
T
2
m1 4 π r
g= 2
m2 T

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 c. Trials 1, 2, 3, 5, 6. Trials 1-6 use the same length string while trials 7 and 8 use
another length. It’s important to hold the length constant as a control since m 2
will be varied. There are more trials that use the 0.30 m length so use trials 1-6.
Trial 4 has a tension value that is radically different than what the previous
increments suggest so this is likely an outlier. As a result, trials 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6
are the best trials to use. It would be good practice to repeat trial 4 so see what
went wrong – or maybe some new physics is there to discover (probably not for
this experiment)!

d. Increase. The two forces acting vertically on the block m2 are the tension force
upward and the gravitational force downward. The gravitational force does not
change. If the block is moving upward, that means that there is an acceleration
in that direction, and the net force is up. Since tension is the only upward force,
the tension must now be bigger than the weight of the block whereas it was
equal to the weight while stationary.

e. No. The force of gravity pulls m1 down and only the vertical component of the
tension force can balance it. This means that m1 will always swing at some
angle below the horizontal.
(Alternate solution) Yes. When the student swings the apparatus very quickly,
the speed of the block increases, which then means that the centripetal force
increases. The centripetal force points towards the center of the circle and
represents the sum of the tension and weight as shown by the vector addition
below. With a speed large enough, the centripetal force would be much larger
than the weight resulting in a smaller non-zero angle.

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2. Ball and a string 2

a.

ma a v 2o
b. From the right triangle properties: tanθ= = =
mg g Rg
2
vo
R=
gtan θ
c.
1 2
y= y o+ v o t+ a t
2
1 2
h= g t
2

t=
√ 2h
g

d. Yes. With an increased velocity, the angle that the ball makes with the horizontal
increases, so the object moves higher before the string breaks. Since it is
higher, the second kinematics equation in the y direction is used to find that the
ball stays in the air longer. Combining this fact with the increased velocity of the
ball causes the ball to go farther before it hits the ground according to the
second kinematics equation in the x direction.

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3. Ball and a string 3
a. Apply Newton’s Second Law, Σ F=ma to derive an expression for the velocity of
the ball at the bottom of the circle.
2
v
F T −mg=ma=m
L
2
mv
4 mg−mg=
L
2
v
3 g=
L

v=√ 3 gL

b. T A >T B >T C . The tension is largest at the bottom of the circle since the string needs
to keep the object on the path with the weight opposing the centripetal force. At
the top, the weight is already directed towards the center, so the tension can be
smaller to keep the object in path. The tension at point B needs more tension
than at the top, since the weight is tangential to the circular path. However, the
weight does not directly oppose the centripetal force like at Point A, so the
tension will be smaller.

c.
i. Student 1. In a circular path, the velocity of the object will be tangential to the
path of the circle. At Point B, since the object is going in a counterclockwise
direction, this means the velocity of the object is up. When the string is
released, there are no horizontal forces acting on the ball. Given that the
velocity is upwards at that moment in time, the ball will just travel up and fall
back down (as it will experience downward acceleration due to gravity).
ii.
2 2
v =v 0 +2 a ( y − y 0 )
2
−v 0=−2 g ( y− y 0 )
2
v0
y− y 0= .
2g
2
v0
y= + y0
2g
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4. Turntable and penny
a. To find μs, put the penny on the turntable and using a measuring stick, find the
distance between the penny and the center of the turntable. Turn on the
turntable and increase the speed in slow increments until the penny starts to
slip. Dial the turntable back down one increment when the penny starts to slip
and find the period of rotation for the penny using a stopwatch to measure the
time it takes the penny to complete ten rotations. Divide this time by 10 for the
period.
Change the distance of the penny from the center of the turntable and repeat
2 πr
the process several times. Use the equation v= in Newton’s Second Law.
T

b. ∑ F=ma
2
mv
f s−max =
r
f s−max =μ F N =μ S mg
2
mv
μS mg=
r
2
v 2 ( 2 π r /T ) 4 π 2 r
μS = = =
gr gr gT2
2
4π r
c. Yes. The x-y graph shown has plotted vs T 2. The slope of the line is the
g
coefficient of static friction, μS , as seen in answer (b).
2
v
d. No. Consider the derived equation μS = . v represents the maximum speed for
gr
static friction to apply before the penny starts slipping, and r represents the
distance from the axis of rotation. µS does not change as the penny is moved as
it depends on the two materials (penny and turntable) and they don’t change.
The ratio of v2 to gr must be constant. Moving the penny closer to the axis of
rotation reduces r. To keep µS constant v must also be smaller.

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 5. Roundtable

a. There are two forces acting on the sphere: gravity and the tension force.
The vector sum of these two forces (net force) must be horizontal and
directed to the center of the table to ensure the sphere moves in a
horizontal circle. The acceleration is in the same direction as the net force.

b. ∑ F=ma
x : F T sinθ=ma
y : FT cosθ−mg=0
2
v
a= , where R=r+ Lsinθ
R

Solve these equations with respect to the speed v:

v=√ ( Lsinθ+ r ) gtanθ

c. v=√ ( ( 0.5 m ) sin 30 ° +0.2 m ) 9.8 tan 30 °=1.59 m/s

2 πR 2(3.14)( 0.5 msin 30° + 0.2m)

d. T = = =1.78 s
v 1.59 m/s

2
v
e. The angle will be larger, from the equation tanθ= , the smaller radius will
R
require the larger angle.

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 6. Block and bowl

a.

b. ∑ F=ma
2
v
y : F N sinθ=ma=m
r
x : F N cosθ−mg=0
f =2 πrf

Combining these equations and solve for the angle.

( )
2 2 2 2
4π rf −1 4 π r f
tanθ= ∨θ=ta n
g g

c. θ=ta n−1 ¿

d. Using the right triangle property, write the following equation:

r−h
cosθ= , now solve for h:
r
h=r ( 1−cosθ )=( 0.1 m ) ( 1−cos 68 ° )=0.06 m=6 cm

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