Question

A potter's wheel moves uniformly from rest to an angular speed of 0.20 rev/s in 32.0 s. (a) Find its angular acceleration in radians per second per second. rad/s2 (b) Would doubling the angular acceleration during the given period have doubled final angular speed?

Answer 1

a. The wheel accelerates uniformly, so its constant acceleration is equal to the average acceleration:

`\alpha=(0.20(\rm rev)/(\rm s)-0)/(32.0\,\rm s)=0.0063(\rm rev)/(\mathrm s^2)`

b. Yes. Since

`\alpha=(\Delta\omega)/(\Delta t)=\frac\omega{\Delta t}`

then multiplying
`\alpha` by 2 means we double the change in angular speed, but the wheel starts from rest so only the final angular speed
`\omega` gets doubled.