A bicycle with 24-inch diameter wheels is traveling at 20 mi/h. Find the angular speed of the wheels in radians per minute.

Question

1. A bicycle with 24-inch diameter wheels is traveling at 20 mi/h. Find the angular speed of the wheels in radians per minute.
2. How many revolutions per minute do the wheels make?

Answer 1

You should mention that 280 rev/min is not an exact figure. Rounded to 2 decimal places, the value is 280.11 rev/min.

Answer 2

V = rω where "V" is velocity, "r" is radius and ω is angular velocity so

ω = V/r but we need to use the same units. So let's convert mi/hr into inches/minute:

ω = 21120/12 (if diameter is 24 then radius is 12)

ω = 1760 rad/min

There are 2π radians per revolution