PSI AP Physics 1

Uniform Circular Motion AP Style Free Response Name________________________

1. A light string is connected to two known masses, m1 and m2, and passes through
a cylindrical tube. A student holds the tube and swings the apparatus so that m1
goes in a horizontal circle of radius r, while m2 hangs down. The student wants to
use this apparatus to experimentally determine the acceleration due to gravity g.
There is no friction between the string and tube and m2 is larger than m1.
a. Put a check in the blank next to each piece of equipment needed for the
experiment. Outline the experimental procedure you would use to gather
the necessary data. Make sure the outline contains enough detail so that
another student could follow your procedure. Include at least one method
for minimizing uncertainty.
___ A meterstick ___ A stopwatch
___ A spring scale ___ A protractor
___ A balance ___ Masses of various sizes
___ Marker ___ Tape

b. Derive an equation to find g using the measurements described in your

procedure in terms of m1, m2, r, T and fundamental constants.

c. The table shows data from an experiment with the same apparatus that is
being done to determine the relationship between tension and rotational
velocity. The length of the string measured from the top of the tube to the
swinging mass m1 is r. The hanging mass is m2. Which five trials would be
most useful in creating a graph to determine the relationship between
tension and rotational velocity for a fixed swinging mass? Explain why the
trials you selected are best.
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 Trial 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.4
r (m) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
m2 (kg) 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 1.1 1.2
12.
FT (N) 4.8 6.0 6.9 11 8.7 9.9 11 0
v (m/s) 3.8 4.2 4.5 4.8 5.1 5.4 6.6 6.9

d. How will the tension in the string change if mass m2 suddenly starts
moving upward?
___ increase ___ decrease ___ stay the same
Justify your answer.
e. The student claims that when you swing the apparatus very quickly, the
string holding m1 will swing horizontally. Is this claim correct?
___ Yes ___ No
Explain your answer without deriving an equation.

2. A person swings a ball with mass m overhead in a horizontal circle from the end
of a light string at an angle θ with respect to the vertical at constant speed v0. The
ball is at a height h above the ground.
a. Draw the forces on the ball on the dot provided below.

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 b. Derive an expression for the radius of the ball’s circular orbit in terms of θ,
vo and g.

c. The string breaks as the object is moving at speed v1. Derive the equation
for the time it takes to fall to the ground.

d. The speed of the ball is doubled before the string breaks. The person
swinging the ball predicts that the ball will go twice as far. Is he correct?

_____ Yes _____ No

Explain your answer.

3. A ball of mass M is attached to a light string of length L moves in a

counterclockwise vertical circle. The ball just clears the ground at the bottom of
the circle. At the bottom of the circle the tension in the string is four times the
weight of the ball.
a. Derive an equation for the velocity of the ball at the bottom of the circle in
terms of L and physical constants.

b. The ball slows down as it goes from A to B to C but continues to move in a

circle with the same radius. Rank the tension in the string from largest to
smallest for locations A, B, and C. In a clear, coherent paragraph-length
response that may also contain diagrams and/or equations, explain your
reasoning.

c. Student 1 and Student 2 are predicting where the ball will go when the
string is released at location B. Student 1 says that the ball will go straight
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 up into the air and then fall back down along the same path. Student 2
says that the ball will go to the right and land on the ground.
i. Which student’s reasoning is correct?
_____ Student 1 _____ Student 2
Explain your answer without deriving an equation.
ii. The ball is swinging with a velocity vo at location B. Derive an
equation for the maximum height of the projectile.

Image credit: https://pixabay.com/vectors/turntable-record-player-antique-297877/

4. A penny of mass m sits on a turntable as shown. A student turns the turntable on

and turns a knob that controls how fast the surface of the turntable moves. The
student notices that at some speeds the penny does not slide. She wants to find
the maximum coefficient of static friction µS between the penny and the surface.
a. Design an experimental procedure to find µS with the given setup.
Describe the procedure to be used, list measurements, symbols for those
measurements, and equipment needed to make them.

b. Derive an equation to find µS using the quantities found in part (a) and
physical constants.

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 c. The student wants to determine the maximum amount of static friction
force when the penny is at different locations on the turntable. She finds
the period of the turntable’s rotation before each penny slides and uses
that to make the graph above. Can she find the maximum static friction
force using the graph?
_____ Yes _____ No
Explain your answer.
d. The student moves the penny closer to the axis of rotation. She reasons
that she can play the turntable at a higher speed before the penny will
start to slip. Is her reasoning correct?
_____ Yes _____ No
Explain your answer.
Answers:
1.
a. Meterstick, stopwatch, marker, masses of various sizes. Use the marker (or
alternatively a piece of tape) to mark a spot on the string below the tube. Place
the mark even with the edge of the tube and measure the length of the string
from the top of the tube to m1. This is the radius that will be used in calculations.
Swing the device at a speed such that the mark stays at the same location just at
the bottom of the tube. The string is not accelerating up or down so by Newton’s

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 Second Law, the net force acting on m2 is zero. The net force acting on m2 is
zero, so the tension in the string is equal to m2g.
Use the stopwatch to measure how long it takes m1 to complete ten rotations, in
order to minimize the uncertainty in the measurement. If a rotation takes 3 s, and
the uncertainty in the time measurement is ±1 s, then the uncertainty is 33% of
the measurement of the period. If ten rotations are timed at 30 s, and the
measurement uncertainty is still ±1 s, then the uncertainty is only 3.3% of the
measurement of the period.
These data can be used to find the period. Replace m2 with a different mass and
repeat the process to find the time for ten rotations.

b. ∑ F=ma
T −m2 g=m2 a2 a 2=0 T =m 2 g
2
v
T =m1 a1=m1
r

v
2
2 πr 2 4 π2r 2
m1 =m2 g v= v=
r T T
2

2
4π r
m1 =m2 g
T2
2
m1 4 π r
g= 2
m2 T

c. Trials 1, 2, 3, 5, 6. Trials 1-6 use the same length string while trials 7 and 8 use
another length. It’s important to hold the length constant as a control since m2 will
be varied. There are more trials that use the 0.30 m length so use trials 1-6. Trial
4 has a tension value that is radically different than what the previous increments
suggest so this is likely an outlier. As a result, trials 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 are the best
trials to use. It would be good practice to repeat trial 4 so see what went wrong –
or maybe some new physics is there to discover (probably not for this
experiment)!
d. Increase. The two forces acting vertically on the block m2 are the tension force
upward and the gravitational force downward. The gravitational force does not
change. If the block is moving upward, that means that there is an acceleration in
that direction, and the net force is up. Since tension is the only upward force, the
tension must now be bigger than the weight of the block whereas it was equal to
the weight while stationary.

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 e. No. The force of gravity pulls m1 down and only the vertical component of the
tension force can balance it. This means that m1 will always swing at some angle
below the horizontal.
(Alternate solution) Yes. When the student swings the apparatus very quickly, the
speed of the block increases, which then means that the centripetal force
increases. The centripetal force points towards the center of the circle and
represents the sum of the tension and weight as shown by the vector addition
below. With a speed large enough, the centripetal force would be much larger
than the weight resulting in a smaller non-zero angle.

2.

a.
ma a v 2o
b. From the right triangle properties: tanθ= = =
mg g Rg
2
vo
R=
gtan θ
c.
1 2
y= y o+ v o t+ a t
2
1 2
h= g t
2

t=
√ 2h
g
d. Yes. According to the second kinematics equation, the horizontal distance
1 2
travelled by an object is modelled by the equation, x=x o + v o t + a t . In this
2
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 scenario, xo and a are equal to zero (since the net force in the horizontal
direction is zero), so the horizontal displacement of the ball can be rewritten
as, x = vot. The time, t the object takes to hit the ground from height h can still
be found using the expression from part (c) ¿
√
2h
g
. This time does not depend
on the value of the velocity as the ball separates from the string, so it will be
the same regardless of the speed of the ball. Since the speed of the ball is
doubled, so will the velocity of the ball when the string breaks. The horizontal
displacement of the ball, x is directly proportional to the initial velocity, so the
horizontal displacement of the ball as it travels to the ground will double.

3.
a. Apply Newton’s Second Law, Σ F=ma in order to derive an expression for
the velocity of the ball at the bottom of the circle.
2
v
F T −mg=ma=m
L
m v2
4 mg−mg =
L

v2
3 g=
L
v=√ 3 gL
b. T A >T B >T C . The tension is largest at the bottom of the circle since the string
needs to keep the object on the path with the weight opposing the centripetal
force. At the top, the weight is already directed towards the center, so the
tension can be smaller to keep the object in path. The tension at point B
needs more tension than at the top, since the weight is tangential to the
circular path. However, the weight does not directly oppose the centripetal
force like at Point A, so the tension will be smaller.
c. i. Student 1. In a circular path, the velocity of the object will be tangential to
the path of the circle. At Point B, since the object is going in a
counterclockwise direction, this means the velocity of the object is up. When
the string is released, there are no horizontal forces acting on the ball. Given
that the velocity is upwards at that moment in time, the ball will just travel up
and fall back down (as it will experience downward acceleration due to
gravity).
ii.

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 2 2
v =v 0 +2 a ( y− y 0 )

−v 20=−2 g ( y− y 0 )
2
v0
y− y 0= .
2g
2
v0
y= + y0
2g

4.
a. To find μs, put the penny on the turntable and using a measuring stick, find
the distance between the penny and the center of the turntable. Turn on the
turntable and increase the speed in slow increments until the penny starts to
slip. Dial the turntable back down one increment when the penny starts to slip
and find the period of rotation for the penny using a stopwatch to measure the
time it takes the penny to complete ten rotations. Divide this time by 10 for the
period.
Change the distance of the penny from the center of the turntable and repeat
2 πr
the process several times. Use the equation v= in Newton’s Second Law.
T

b. ∑ F=ma
2
mv
f s−max =
r
f s−max =μ F N =μ S mg
2
mv
μS mg=
r
2
v 2 ( 2 π r /T ) 4 π 2 r
μS = = =
gr gr gT2
2
4π r
c. Yes. The x-y graph shown has plotted vs T 2. The slope of the line is
g
the coefficient of static friction, μS , as seen in answer (b).
2
v
d. No. Consider the derived equation μS = . v represents the maximum
gr
speed for static friction to apply before the penny starts slipping, and r
represents the distance from the axis of rotation. µS does not change as the
penny is moved as it depends on the two materials (penny and turntable) and
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 they don’t change. The ratio of v2 to gr must be constant. Moving the penny
closer to the axis of rotation reduces r. To keep µS constant v must also be
smaller.

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