A uniform, solid wooden merry-go-round disk has mass 85 kg and radius 1.2 m. Two…
PHYSICS · Multi-part · CBSE · Physics · System of Particles and Rotational Motion · System of Particles and Rotational Motion
Problem
A uniform, solid wooden merry-go-round disk has mass 85 kg and radius 1.2 m. Two children ride on the disk while it spins freely about a central vertical axle.
• Child 1 has mass 25 kg and sits at the rim.
• Child 2 has mass 20 kg and sits 0.60 m from the center.
At an instant when the disk is rotating at 2.0 rad/s, take the positive direction to be the direction of rotation and neglect all external torques.
(a) Determine the angular momentum of the wooden disk about the axle at that instant.
(b) Calculate the individual angular momenta of Child 1 and Child 2 about the axle at the same instant.
(c) Compute the percentage of the total angular momentum that is contributed by the disk itself (as opposed to the two children). Show your work clearly.