centripetal forces

Question

Consider a FBD provided for a toy car turning a corner.
a) Which force here could be called the centripetal force?


b) Write a horizontal FNET equation and identify the acceleration as ac.


c) If Ffrict = 50N and mass = 2kg, what is the centripetal acceleration of the car?

 

I got A. It was Force of Friction and B as well the equation is Fc=mac 

 

Im stuck on C. my textbook says the answer is ac=25m/s^2

Answer 1

We need to know the force directed toward the center of curvature, so that we can divide it by the given mass to obtain centripetal acceleration.   If the given 50 N force is the force that keeps the car on a circular path, then it is the same as the centripetal force.  (But that is not clear from the problem statement.)  In this case, the centripetal acceleration is

 

a_c = F/m = 50 N / (2 kg) = 25 m/s²