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M2 Conical Pendulum Question - Need Help

Hi all,

I'm having problems with a conical pendulum question, in particular because there are two unknowns. I'd love to be able to provide a diagram, but I'm unable to so I'm hoping most people are able to picture a typical conical pendulum scenario in their heads with the wording of the question:

A conical pendulum consists of a light inextensible string AB of length 50cm fixed at A and carrying a bob of mass 2kg at B. The bob describes a horizontal circle about the vertical through A with a constant angular speed of 5 rad/s. Find the tension in the string

Resolving vertically and horizontally:

Tcosθ =mgT\cos \theta \ = mg
Tsinθ =mrw2T\sin \theta \ = mrw^2

Dividing equation 2 by equation 1, eliminates R and m leaves:

tanθ =rw2g\tan \theta \ = \frac{rw^2}{g}

Problem is I'm left with two unknowns, theta and the radius r, and I'm stumped.

I know based on experience because the hypotenuse is 50cm, both vertical length and r must be 40cm and 30cm respectively, but I can't prove that and if the hypotenuse were less straight forward, I wouldn't know how to obtain the radius.

(BTW this question comes from exercise 13C, question 7 in understanding mechanics by A.J Sadler/D.W.S Thorning if anyone has it)
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 1
Original post by Sharpshooter


Rushing and brief, but perhaps use mw2rm w^2 r instead of mv2r\frac{mv^2}{r}
Original post by Zacken
Rushing and brief, but perhaps use mw2rm w^2 r instead of mv2r\frac{mv^2}{r}


Oops sorry that was my mistake (I'll edit the OP), I forgot it was talking about rad/s not m/s.

tanθ =rw2g\tan \theta \ = \frac {rw^2}{g}

That still leaves me with two unknowns however, theta and r, neither of which I can solve.
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by Sharpshooter
Oops sorry that was my mistake (I'll edit the OP), I forgot it was talking about rad/s not m/s.

tanθ =rw2g\tan \theta \ = \frac {rw^2}{g}

That still leaves me with two unknowns however, theta and r, neither of which I can solve.


You can express tan theta in terms of r by using tan theta = opposite/adjacent.

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