Physlet Illustration: Rolling Motion

 

 

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A wheel of radius 5 m rolls without slipping along a level road at a constant rate. The grid shown is in meters, and the times are shown in seconds. Determine its angular velocity, omega, in radians/sec and its linear velocity, v, in m/s. How are these two quantities related?

Hints:

  1. Determine how long it takes the wheel to make one complete revolution.
  2. How many radians does it turn in that single revolution?
  3. How far did the wheel move horizontally during this same time interval?

Reference

See Walker, Section 10-3

Illustration written by Steve Mellema