Speed Skating#

In short-track speed skating skaters frequently fall. At one of the winter Olympics, speed skater Charles Hamelin won a gold medal in the 1500 \(m\), but fell during a turn of the 500 \(m\) sprint.

Possible directions the skater slides
Long Description of image: Possible directions the skater slides
Fig.1 depicts a oval shaped skating rink with arrows that indicate the skaters skate in a counter clockwise direction. Point 'H' is located near the right side of the rink just before a turn. Letters 'A' to 'E' indicate possible motions that the skater could slide after falling. 'A' depicts a motion that is in the opposite direction as the circular skating direction. 'B' depicts sliding out to the right and away from the circular motion of the skaters. 'C' depicts a curved motion away from the uniform circular skating motion. 'D' depicts a straight line motion in the same direction that the skater was going in. 'E' depicts a curved motion that follows the direction and curve of the circular skating rink.

Long description ends.

Part 1#

If Charles fell at the point marked H in Fig.1 while in uniform circular motion, at which labeled point would he have hit the safety retaining wall after a frictionless slide across the ice? (Arrows indicate the direction that skaters skate in.)

Answer Section#

  • A

  • B

  • C

  • D

  • E

Attribution#

Problem is licensed under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
The Creative Commons 4.0 license requiring attribution-BY, non-commercial-NC, and share-alike-SA license.