How Do You Calculate Angular Acceleration from Initial Speed and Angle Change?

[xregina12]

The wheel on an upside down bike moves through 15 rad in 5 seconds. What is the wheel's angualr acceleration if its initial angular speed is 2.4 rad/s. Answer in units of rad/s^2

I used the equation ω(final) = ω(initial)+αt and solved for α however, I did not get a correct answer. Can anyone help?

 

[alphysicist]

Hi xregina12,

The wheel on an upside down bike moves through 15 rad in 5 seconds. What is the wheel's angualr acceleration if its initial angular speed is 2.4 rad/s. Answer in units of rad/s^2

I used the equation ω(final) = ω(initial)+αt and solved for α however, I did not get a correct answer. Can anyone help?

Can you show what numbers you used and what you did? They don't give you the final angular speed, so that equation by itself would have two unknowns.

 

[thomate1]

Based on the given information, we can use the equation α = (ω(final) - ω(initial))/t to calculate the angular acceleration of the wheel. Plugging in the values, we get α = (15 rad - 2.4 rad)/5 s = 2.52 rad/s^2. It is possible that there was an error in the calculation or in the units used, so double-checking the values and units may help to identify the issue. Additionally, it is important to make sure that the signs of the values are correct, as the final angular speed may be negative if the wheel is rotating in the opposite direction.