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wmrunner24
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Homework Statement
An amusement park ride consists of a rotating circular platform 8.07m in diameter from which 10kg seats are suspended at the end of 2.87m massless chains. When the system rotate, it makes an angle of 37.3[tex]\circ[/tex] with the vertical. The acceleration of gravity is 9.8m/s^2.
What is the speed of each seat?
Homework Equations
Fc=[tex]\frac{Vt^2m}{r}[/tex]
The Attempt at a Solution
I already have a good idea of how to start, with the tension in the rope in the x direction, but what I was wondering is...can gravity have a horizontal component? Gravity pulls straight down, but to pull down on the seat as far as possible, it has to move in closer to the center (i.e. there has to be an x force). I'm pretty sure that's tension, but in this case, aren't tension and gravity an action-reaction pair? Which would imply that gravity is active to some extent in the x direction?