Final answer:
The ant standing on the edge of a spinning record player moves faster than the ant standing halfway between the center and the edge due to having a greater tangential speed. This is analogous to ants on a stretching ruler moving apart faster as their distance from a reference point increases.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question you're asking pertains to circular motion, and more specifically to the concept of tangential speed in rotational systems. Given a record player spinning at a constant rotational speed, ants located at different radii from the center will have different linear or tangential speeds even though they share the same angular speed. The ant that is standing on the edge of the record will be moving faster than the ant standing halfway between the center and the edge.
This difference in speed with distance from the center is similar to the separation of ants on a stretching ruler, as described in the provided information. When the ruler stretches uniformly, ants further away from a reference point move at greater speeds. This is analogical to how rotational speed works: the further from the center, the greater the tangential speed.
In summary, if you picture the record as an analogous stretching ruler, you can see that the rotational speed of the record causes ants further out to move faster than those nearer to the center. Thus, the ant on the edge is moving faster than the ant halfway to the center.