Question

A record player is spinning with a certain rotational speed. An ant is standing somewhere on the record without slipping. Suddenly, the rotational speed of the record player is doubled (it is spinning twice as quickly). What happens to the ant's tangential speed?

Answer 1

The ant's tangential speed will double when the record player's rotational speed is doubled, because tangential speed is directly proportional to angular velocity.

Step-by-step explanation:

When the rotational speed of a record player is doubled, the ant standing on the record will experience a change in its tangential speed. Since tangential speed is a product of the rotational speed (angular velocity) and the radius of the circle, and understanding that the radius remains unchanged, when the rotational speed is doubled, the tangential speed of the ant will also double. The direction of the angular velocity and tangential speed are always perpendicular to the radius, thus tangential speed does not affect the radial distance from the center of the rotation; it refers merely to the speed at which the ant moves along the edge of the record.