Name:

Rotational Kinematics Worksheet

Conversions:​ Convert the following units to radians

1. 45° → rad
2. 135° → rad
3. 95° → rad
4. 180° → rad
5. 445° → rad
6. 4.5 rotations → rad
7. 5 rotations → rad
8. 18 rotations → rad
9. 1.5 rotations → rad
10. 0.35 rotations → rad

11. A computer’s hard drive spins at 7000 RPM. What is the angular velocity in rad/s? What
is the velocity in m/s of the hard drive at a radius of 0.09 m?

12. A record player has a velocity of 45 RPM. How fast is the record
spinning in m/s at a distance of 0.085 m from the center?

13. A flywheel speeds up uniformly from rest to 900 RPM in 3 minutes.

a. Find the angular acceleration.
b. Find the tangential acceleration of the rim if the flywheel has a
0.25 m radius.

14. A tire rotates at a constant 1.5 radians every 0.1 s.

a. What is the tire’s angular velocity?
b. If the tire has a diameter of the tire is 80 cm, what is the linear speed of the car?

15. A merry-go-round is rotating at 12 RPM and has a radius of 1.75 m.

a. How many revolutions will it make in 2 minutes?
b. How many revolutions will it make in 12.0 seconds?
c. How long does it take for a person to make 1 complete
revolution?
d. What is the velocity in m/s of person standing on its edge?

16. . The Earth rotates 1 time every 24 hours….

a. How many RPM’s is this?
 b. What is the velocity of a person standing on the surface of the Earth 6,378,000 m
from the center?
17. A typical circular saw has a radius of 0.18 m and rotates so the velocity of its edge is 115
m/s. How many RPM does the saw make?

18. The International Space Station (ISS) orbits at an altitude of 400

km above Earth’s surface. The ISS has an orbital period of 93
minutes. If the radius of the Earth is 6,378 km.
a. What is the ISS’ angular velocity?
b. What is the ISS’ tangential velocity?

19. A centrifuge rotates so that 0.25 m from the center is traveling at 350 m/s.
a. How many RPM is this?
b. What is its angular velocity?

20. What is the angular velocity in rad/s for the following;

a. The hour hand of a clock.
b. The minutes hand of a clock.
c. The second hand of a clock.

21. A wheel is spinning at 5 rad/s.

a. How many radians will it turn through in 20 seconds?
b. How many revolutions is this?

22. A CD player spins at 8590 RPM. If it starts from rest and has an
acceleration of 450 rad/s2 , how long does it take to reach full speed?

23. A rotating machine has an initial angular speed of 1.6 rad/s accelerates
uniformly at a rate of 0.5 rad/s2 for 5.0 seconds.
a. What is its angular displacement during this time?
b. How many revolutions is this?

24. A fan spins through 600 radians in 10 seconds. What is its angular velocity?

25. How long will it take for a helicopter blade to turn through 250 radians if its angular
velocity is 60 rad/s?

26. A baton twirler spins a baton at 25 RPM.

a. What is its angular velocity in rad/s?
b. How many radians will it travel in 4 seconds?
27. A sharpening wheel is traveling at 10 rad/s, it slows down to rest in 30 seconds while
sharpening an ax. What is its angular acceleration?
28. Starting from rest, an Apache helicopter’s rotors undergo an angular acceleration of 0.75
rad/s2 .
a. How fast will they be traveling in 60 seconds?
b. How many radians have they rotated through?
c. What is the linear velocity of the tip of the rotors (R = 11.3 m)?

29. A washing machine spins clothes at 20 rad/s and slows down to 8 rad/s
while turning through 500 revolutions.
a. What is the angular acceleration?
b. How much time does it take to slow down?

30. A gyroscope rotates through and angle of 200 radians while accelerating
from rest at 2.5 rad/s2 .
a. How long does it take to reach 200 radians?
b. What is its final angular velocity?
c. What is the linear velocity at its edge (R = 0.05 m)?

31. A breeze causes a pinwheel to start from rest and accelerate at 0.5
rad/s2 for 9 seconds.
a. How many radians does it turn through?
b. How many revolutions will it make?

32. A ball rolls down a meter long incline from rest to 2.0 m/s. The ball has
a 5.0 cm radius. Find the angular acceleration of the ball during its roll.

33. A racecar travels in a circular track of radius 250 m. If the car moves with a constant
speed of 70 m/s.
a. What is its angular velocity?
b. Tangential acceleration?

34. A tire, radius of 50 cm, rotates at a constant rate of 200 RPM. Find the speed of a small
stone lodged in the tread of the tire on its outer edge.

35. An old grinding wheel, initially at rest, is rotated with a constant

angular acceleration of 5.0 rad/s2 for 10 s. The wheel is then
brought to rest in 10 revolutions.
a. Determine the angular acceleration required to bring the
wheel to a rest.
b. How long does it take to bring the wheel to rest.
36. A motorcycle has tires with a diameter of 44.0 cm. Cruising down the highway, they are
rotating at 1150 RPM.
a. What is the angular velocity in radians per second?
b. What is the tangential velocity in meters per second?

37. A DJ speeds up a turntable uniformly from 30 RPM to 45 RPM. In

doing so, the turntable goes through 3 revolutions. What is the
angular acceleration of the table?

38. How long will it take for a basketball spinning at 27 rad/s on someone’s finger to stop if it
undergoes and angular acceleration of -0.15 rad/s2 ?

39. Imagine a Ferris wheel that is rotating at a rate of 25 degrees each second.
a. What is the Ferris wheel’s period of rotation in seconds?
b. What is the angular velocity in rotations per minute?
c. What is the angular velocity in radians per second?
d. If the tangential velocity of one of the cars is 2.8 m/s, how far is it located from
the axis of rotation?

40. A fan that is turning at 15 RPM speeds up to 25 RPM in 10 seconds. How

many radians and rotations does the blade require to alter its speed?

41. An old phonograph played records by turning them at 45 RPM. If the motor
is turned off, taking 0.75 seconds to come to a stop.
a. What is its average angular acceleration?
b. How many rotations did it make while coming to a stop?

42. Starting from rest, the drum of a washing machine reaches an angular speed of 6.5
rad/s, with an average angular acceleration of 4.0 rad/s2 .
a. How long does it take the spin cycle to come up to speed?
b. What angular distance, in radians, does the tub rotate through as it reaches this
angular velocity?

43. The blades of an electric blender are whirling with an angular velocity of 375
rad/s. When the “blend” button is pressed, the blades accelerate and reach a
greater angular velocity. The blades accelerate at 1500 rad/s2 and the blades
take 44 radians to complete this acceleration. Find the final angular velocity
of the blades.
 44. A figure skater begins spinning clockwise at an angular speed of 13 rad/s.
During a 3.0 sec interval, she pulls her arms inward and finally spins at 25
rad/s.
a. What is her average angular acceleration during this time interval?
b. How many rotations did she spin in this time interval as she
accelerated her spin?

45. With the aid of a string, a gyroscope is accelerated from rest to 32 rad/s
in 0.40 s.
a. What is its angular acceleration in rad/s2 ?
b. How many revolutions does it go through in the process?

46. Suppose a sticker is put on a CD. If the spin rate of the CD is 500 RPM,
and the sticker is 4.3 cm from the center, what is the total linear distance
traveled by the sticker in 3 minutes?

47. During a very quick stop, a car decelerates at 7.00 m/s2 .

a. What is the angular acceleration of its tires, 0.3 m, assuming they do not slip on
the pavement?
b. How many revolutions do the tires make before coming to rest, given their initial
angular velocity is 95.0 rad/s?
c. How long does the car take to stop completely?
d. What distance does the car travel in this time?
e. What was the car’s initial velocity?

Challenge Problems
48. The Halo Array, in the popular video game Halo, has a
diameter of 10,000 km. The system is a massive ring system
that rotates to simulate artificial gravity. How fast must the
Halo Array rotate to simulate the acceleration of gravity on
Earth?

49. Space stations simulate gravity by using centripetal force. A

double-ringed space station has an outer radius of 150m and the
occupants experience 80% the acceleration of Earth. The inner
ring stimulates the acceleration of Mars which is 33% of Earth’s.
What is the radius of the inner ring.. *Remember, the inner and
outer rings must move together or the station will rip itself apart.*
50. Satellites in geosynchronous orbit, with an orbital period
the same as the Earth's rotation period, are always in
the same position in the sky. This means if the Moon
was geosynchronous to the USA, it would always be
visible in the sky no matter what time of day. If these
satellites orbit at 35,800 km, what is their orbital velocity
in m/s? Re = 6, 378 km

Key
1. 45º(2π)/360 ≈ 0.79 rad
2. 135º(2π)/360 ≈ 2.36rad
3. 95º(2π)/360 ≈ 1.66 rad
4. 180º(2π)/360 ≈ 3.14 rad
5. 445º(2π)/360 ≈ 7.77 rad
6. 4.5(2π) ≈ 28.3 rad
7. 5(2π) ≈ 31.4 rad
8. 418(2π) ≈ 113 rad
9. 1.5(2π) ≈ 9.42 rad
10. 0.35(2π) ≈ 2.2 rad
→
→
11. 7000(2π)/60 = 733 rad/s V = W r = 733(0.09) ≈ 66m/s
12. 45(2π)/60 = 4.7 rad/s v = wr = 4.7(0.085) = 0.4 m/s
13.
a. w = wo + αt 900(2π)/60 = 94.2 rad/s 94.2/180 = 0.52rad/s2
b. a = αr = 0.52(0.25) = 0.13m/s2
14.
a. w = Δθ/t = 1.5/0.1 = 15 rad/s
b. v = rw = 0.8(15) = 12m/s
15.
a. 12RP M (2) = 24 rot
b. 12/60 = 0.2 min 0.2(12) = 2.4 rot
c. t = Δθ/w w = 12(2π)/60 = 1.26 rad/s t = 2π/1.26 = 5 sec
d. v = rw = 1.75(1.26) = 2.21m/s
16.
a. 1/1440 ≈ 6.9E − 4 RP M
b. w = (2π)/(24x60x60) = 7.27E − 5 rad/s v = rw = 6378000(7.27E − 5) ≈ 463 m/s
17. w = v /r = 115/0.18 = 639 rad/s ≈ 6100 RP M
18.
a. w = (2π)/(93x60) = 1.26E − 3 rad/s
b. v = rw = (6378000 + 400000)(1.26E − 3) ≈ 7632 m/s
19.
a. w = v /r = 350/0.25 = 1400 rad/s ≈ 13, 370 RP M
b. v = rw = (0.25)1400 = 350m/s
20.
a. w = 2π/t = 2π/(12x60x60) = 1.45E − 4 rad/s
b. w = 2π/t = 2π/(60x60) = 1.75E − 3 rad/s
c. w = 2π/t = 2π/60 = 0.105 rad/s
21.
 a. 100 rad
b. 15.9 rev

22. 2sec a. 14.4s

23. b. 4.2 RPM
a. 14.25 rad c. 0.436 rad/s
b. 2.27 rev d. 6.42m
24. 60 rad/s 40. 20.9 rad or 3.3 rev
25. 4.2 sec 41.
26. a. -6.27 rad/s^2
a. 2.62 rad/s b. 0.28 rot
b. 10.5 rad 42.
27. -0.33 rad/s^2 a. 1.63s
28. b. 5.3 rad
a. 45 rad/s 43. 522 rad/s
b. 1350 rad 44.
c. 509m/s a. 4 rad/s^2
29. b. 9.1 rot
a. -0.336 rad/s^2 45. 80 rad/s^2
b. 35.7s 46. 406m
30. 47.
a. 12.6s a. 23.3 m/s^2
b. 31.6 rad/s b. 30.8 rot
c. 1.58 m/s c. 4.08s
31. d. 58.1m
a. 20.3 rad e. 28.5 m/s
b. 3.22 rot 48. 221.5 m/s or 0.044 rad/s
32. 40 m/s^2 49. 61.2m
33. 50. 3066 m/s
a. 0.28 rad/s
b. 70 m/s
34. 10.47 m/s
35.
a. -19.9 rad/s^2
b. 2.5s
36.
a. 120.4 rad/s
b. 53 m/s
37. 0.85 rad/s^2
38. 180 s
39.