The tension in a 2 m length of string that whirls a 1 kg mass at 4 m/s in a horizontal circle is calculated to be 8 N. How do you alculate the tension for the following case: twice the length of string?

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Answer 1 · 2015-11-24T22:08:09

The tension will be $4"N"$

The tension is equal to the centripetal force given by:

$F=(mv^2)/r$

You can see that doubling $r$ will therefore half the tension to $4"N"$

Check:

$F=(1xx4^2)/4=4"N"$