194k views
3 votes
A point at the end of a spinning helicopter blade has a centripetal acceleration of 67.37 m/s². If the velocity of the blade at this point is 16 m/s, what is the length of the helicopter blade?

User Ouah
by
9.0k points

1 Answer

3 votes

Final answer:

The length of the helicopter blade is calculated using the formula for centripetal acceleration, and with the given values of 67.37 m/s² for acceleration and 16 m/s for velocity, the blade length is found to be approximately 3.79 meters.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the length of the helicopter blade, we can use the formula for centripetal acceleration: a = v²/r, where a is the centripetal acceleration, v is the velocity of the blade at the point and r is the radius of the circle, which is equivalent to the length of the helicopter blade. Given that the centripetal acceleration (a) is 67.37 m/s² and the velocity (v) is 16 m/s, we can solve for r by rearranging the formula to r = v²/a. Plugging in the given values, r = (16 m/s)² / 67.37 m/s², which calculates to approximately 3.79 meters. Therefore, the length of the helicopter blade is about 3.79 meters.

User Keryn Knight
by
6.7k points