Friction always is a force which opposes motion. The cart holding the people is not moving wrt the wheel. Thus no frictional forces exist. The Centripetal Force is the Ferris Wheel structure itself that forces the cart to move in a circle. This is similar to swinging an object attached to a rigid rod or a rope...................However .... if we consider the person rather than the cart holding him, then there is friction between him and his seat. If the coefficient of friction is high enough, then this is the Force that causes a(centripetal). F(centripetal) = m v squared over r. And f(friction) = mu F(normal) = mu m g from the vertical equation.
at the 6'o clock position, the net force is upward, but the man is also having a sideway velocity at that point in time. So he does not lift up vertically.
Similarly, at the top, the net force is downward, but because the man is having a sideway velocity at that instant, the man does not drop vertically downward.
The net force only tells us the direction in which the velocity is CHANGING. Like a moving ship trying to turn, it takes time before the velocity is in the same direction as the net force.
acceleration in this context is actually not constant, acceleration is the change in velocity compared to time. since velocity is direction and magnitude, the ferris wheel changes direction which changes velocity. Therefore, acceleration changes as well mking it not constant.
Hi can you explain to me why is the man hovering at the top? I get that the normal force there is zero when the car goes berserk but doesn't that mean there would be no force balancing him against the force of gravity and he would fall THROUGH the car in a free fall? But my question contradicts itself, the man's apparent weight is less at the top of the wheel so "falling through" the car would be impossible...so how is it the way it is? I am also not very clear on the friction force exerted sideways at 3 and 9 o'clock. Friction force's nature is to oppose the relative motion of moving surfaces/ objects. Whose relative motion is friction opposing here? Please help.
You are correct that at the top the man experiences a downward net force. But he does not fall through the car because the car itself is dropping as fast. As for the frictional force, well, if you focus on just the horizontal motion, going from 12 to 3'o clock, the man's inertia wants to maintain its rightward momentum but the car wants to slow down. So that's the tendency for relative motion and frictional force steps in to keep the two surfaces together. Going from 3 to 6'o clock, the car wants to speed up (leftward) but the man does not feel like it, so...
They didn't plug any numbers in. It's true that at the top of a ferris wheel you accelerate downwards immediately due to weight being larger than normal contact force so a resultant force is present acting downwards from the centre of mass of the cabin.
No. He feels heavier on the bottom; lighter on the top. What he feels is the Normal Force. If he jumps off a diving board, he feels weightless because the Normal Force is zero. But in a chair it is = his mg/weight.
