A uniform drawbridge 8.00 m long is attached to the roadway by a frictionless hinge at one end, and it can be raised by a cable attached to the other end. The bridge is at rest, suspended at 60.0° above the horizontal, when the cable suddenly breaks.
(a) Find the angular acceleration of the drawbridge just after the cable breaks. (Gravity behaves as though it all acts at the center of mass.)
(b) Could you use the equation w = wo + at to calculate the angular speed of the drawbridge at a later time? Explain why.
(c) What is the angular speed of the drawbridge as it becomes horizontal?