Centrifuge Question, How Do I Go About Finding The Answer?
The 20-g centrifuge at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, is a cylindrical tube 58 ft long with a radius of 29 ft (see figure). If a rider sits in a chair at the end of one arm facing the center, how many revolutions per minute would be required to create a horizontal normal force equal in magnitude to 20.0 times the rider’s weight?
Rw² = 20*g → w = √(20*32.2/29) = 4.712 rad/sec
rpm = w(60/2π) = 45 rpm
However, due to gravity being present, the rider would actually experience a force = 20.02 times his weight in a direction 2.86° below horizontal.
Where does 32.2 come from?