Question

A small car with mass of 0.800 kg travels at a constant speed

on the inside of a track that is a vertical circle with radius 5.00
m. If the normal force exerted by the track on the car when it
is at the bottom of the track is 25 N,
a) What is the normal force on the car when it is at the (i)
top, (ii) rightmost and (iii) leftmost point of the track?
b) What is the speed of the car as it travels around the
vertical circle?

Answer 1

The equation of equilibrium at the top of the vertical circle is:

\Sigma F = - N - m\cdot g = - m \cdot \frac{v^{2}}{R}

The speed experimented by the car is:

\frac{N}{m}+g=\frac{v^{2}}{R}

v = \sqrt{R\cdot (\frac{N}{m}+g) }

v = \sqrt{(5\,m)\cdot (\frac{6\,N}{0.8\,kg} +9.807\,\frac{kg}{m^{2}} )}

v\approx 9.302\,\frac{m}{s}

The equation of equilibrium at the bottom of the vertical circle is:

\Sigma F = N - m\cdot g = m \cdot \frac{v^{2}}{R}

The normal force on the car when it is at the bottom of the track is:

N=m\cdot (\frac{v^{2}}{R}+g )

N = (0.8\,kg)\cdot \left(\frac{(9.302\,\frac{m}{s} )^{2}}{5\,m}+ 9.807\,\frac{m}{s^{2}} \right)

N=21.690\,N