What forces act on a merry-go-round in motion?

Describe the forces acting on a standard merry-go-round (one in which the children simply stand on it and run to create the motion). How do you calculate the force the child needs to provide in order to create the motion?What forces act on a merry-go-round in motion?Weight of merry go round

Weight of kids on merry go round

Normal force supporting merry-go-round

Friction

Force of kids pushing



The kids must push with enough force to create enough torque to overcome the frictional torque.



Calculating the force of friction is fairly straightforward if you know the normal force and can estimate the coefficient of friction in the bearing. Then you have to estimate a lever arm distance to estimate the torque (or integrate dF x r to calculate the torque). The force of push required will be the frictional torque divided by the distance between the push and the axis of rotation.

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