Ferris Wheel Physics

26/5/2014 Ferris Wheel Physics
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Ferris Wheel Physics

Photo credit: celesteh
Ferris wheel physics is directly related to centripetal acceleration, which
results in the riders feeling "heavier" or "lighter" depending on their position
on the Ferris wheel.

The Ferris wheel consists of an upright wheel with passenger gondolas
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204 Like
(seats) attached to the rim. These gondolas can freely pivot at the
support where they are connected to the Ferris wheel. As a result, the
gondolas always hang downwards at all times as the Ferris wheel spins.
To analyze the Ferris wheel physics, we must first simplify the problem.
The figure below shows a schematic of the Ferris wheel, illustrating the
essentials of the problem.

Where:
(1) is the top-most position and (2) is the bottom-most position
Point P is where the gondolas are attached to the Ferris wheel
Point C is where the passengers sit (on the gondola)
R is the radius of the Ferris wheel
w is the angular velocity of the Ferris wheel, in radians/s
The forces acting on the passengers are due to the combined effect of
gravity and centripetal acceleration, caused by the rotation of the Ferris
wheel with angular velocity w.
We wish to analyze the forces acting on the passengers at locations (1)
and (2). The figure below shows a free-body diagram for the passengers
at these locations.
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Where:
mg is the force of gravity pulling down on the passengers, where m is the
mass of the passengers and g is the acceleration due to gravity, which is
9.8 m/s
2

N
1
is the force exerted on the passengers (by the seats) at point C, at
location (1)
N
2
is the force exerted on the passengers (by the seats) at point C, at
location (2)
a
P
is the centripetal acceleration of point P. This acceleration is always
pointing towards the center of the wheel. So at location (1) this
acceleration is pointing directly down, and at location (2) this acceleration
is pointing directly up.
The centripetal acceleration is given by

The centripetal acceleration always points towards the center of the
circle. So at the bottom of the circle, a
P
is pointing up. At the top of the
circle a
P
is pointing down. At these two positions a
P
is a vector which is
aligned (parallel) with gravity, so their contributions can be directly added
together.
By Newton's second law

where F is the sum of the forces.
To solve for N
1
and N
2
we must apply this equation in the vertical
direction.
The acceleration of the passengers at point C is equal to the acceleration
of the Ferris wheel at point P. This is because point C does not move
relative to point P. Therefore, the velocity and acceleration of these two
points are the same.
First, solve for N
1

Next, solve for N
2

We can see that N
2
> N
1
. This means that the passengers feel "heaviest"
at the bottom of the Ferris wheel, and the "lightest" at the top.
So basically, the motion of a Ferris wheel affects your bodies "apparent"
weight, which varies depending on where you are on the ride. The riders
only feel their "true weight", when the centripetal acceleration is pointing
horizontally and has no vector component parallel with gravity, and as a
result it has no contribution in the vertical direction. This occurs when the
riders are exactly halfway between the top and bottom (i.e. they are at
the same height as the center of the Ferris wheel).
It's informative to look at an example to get an idea of how much force
acts on the passengers.
Let's say we have a Ferris wheel with a radius of 50 meters, which makes
two full revolutions per minute.
Two full revolutions per minute translates into w = 0.21 radians/s.
Substituting this into the above equations we find that
a
P
= 2.2 m/s
2
(centripetal acceleration)
Therefore,
N
1
= m(g 2.2)
N
2
= m(g + 2.2)
With g = 9.8 m/s
2
,
N
1
= 7.6m
N
2
= 12m
At the top of the Ferris wheel the passengers experience 0.78g (they feel
lighter).
At the bottom of the Ferris wheel the passengers experience 1.2g (they
feel heavier).
Now that we understand the physics of a Ferris wheel, one can imagine
how important it is for a large radius Ferris wheel to turn slowly, given how
much influence the rotation rate w will have on the centripetal
acceleration a
P
, and on N
1
and N
2
, as a result.
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26/5/2014 Ferris Wheel Physics

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