Question

What is approximately the centripetal acceleration (in units of acceleration due to gravity on earth, $g = 10\,m/s^{-2}$) of an air-craft flying at a speed of $400\,m/s$ through a circular arc of radius $0.6\,km$ ?

• A. 26.7
• B. 16.9
• C. 13.5
• D. 30.2

Answer 1

Answer: (A)

Here, $v = 400 \,m \,s^{-1}$,
$r = 0.6 \,km = 0.6 \times 10^3\,m$,
$g = 10\, m s^{-2}$
Centripetal acceleration,
$a_{c}=\frac{v^{2}}{r}$
$\frac{\left(400\,m\,s^{-1}\right)^{2}}{0.6\times10^{3}\,m}$
$=26.7\times10^{3}\,ms^{-2}$
In the units of $g(= 10 \,m s^{-2})$, the centripetal acceleration is $26.7$.