Question 775064-3-24R.

The track near the top of your favourite roller coaster is looped with a
diameter of 20 m. When you are at the top, you feel as if you weigh one-third of your true weight.
How fast is the roller coaster moving?

Solution:

Let, there be a man of mass m moving with roller coaster having speed v at the top as shown in
fig.1.

Fig.1

Fig.1

Radius of shown loop is r = 10m.Forces acting on the man are weight of the man, normal force and
centrifugal force as shown in fig.1.

If we see from the man’s frame on the roller coaster, we talk about centrifugal force having
magnitude same as centripetal force and direction opposite to the centripetal force (However, this is
not a force, this is just for convenience from reference frame of object in circular motion, like
pseudo force). Hence, we have

mg
N=
3

mv 2
r
=N +m g ⇒ v=
4
3
gr
√
Putting g = 9.8 m ∕ s2 and r = 10m, we get

⇒ v=∼ 11.43m/s