A child on a merry-go-round has an ice cream cone. The ice cream on top of the cone will fly off if the centripetal force exceeds 2.5 N. At first, there is 350 g of ice cream, before it starts melting.

(a) Draw a free body diagram of the ice cream.

(b) Is the ice cream more likely to fly off if the child is closer to the center or farther from the center? Why? Assume tha angular speed of the merry-go-round is unaffected by the position of the child.

(c) What is the maximum tangential speed of the ice cream cone, if the child stands 1.5 m from the center of the merry-go-round?

(d) What is the maximum angular speed of the ice cream cone at the same location?

(e) Period, also represented as T , is the amount of time one revolution takes. What is the period of the ice cream cone?

ANSWERS from the answer key: a) friction-like force into the circle, N up, Fg down b) farther, because centripetal acceleration is proportional to radius for constant c) 3.3 m/s d) 2.2 rad/s e) 2.9 s