A 1.00-kg mass is attatched to a string 1.0m long and completes a horizontal circle in 0.25s. What is the centripetal acceleration and force or the mass?

- - The string is 1 m long. That's the radius of the circle that the mass is

traveling in. The circumference of the circle is (π) x (2R) = 2π meters.

- - The speed of the mass is (2π meters) / (0.25 sec) = 8π m/s.

- - Centripetal acceleration is V²/R = (8π m/s) ² / (1 m) = 64π^2 m/s²

- - Force = (mass) x (acceleration) = (1kg) x (64π^2 m/s²) =

64π^2 kg-m/s² = 64π^2 N = about 631.7 N.

That's it. It takes roughly a 142-pound pull on the string to keep

1 kilogram revolving at a 1-meter radius 4 times a second!

If you eased up on the string, the kilogram could keep revolving

in the same circle, but not as fast.

You also need to be very careful with this experiment, and use a string

that can hold up to a couple hundred pounds of tension without snapping.

If you've got that thing spinning at 4 times per second and the string breaks,

you've suddenly got a wild kilogram flying away from the circle in a straight

line, at 8π meters per second ... about 56 miles per hour! This could definitely

be hazardous to the health of anybody who's been watching you and wondering

what you're doing.