Expert: Steve Holleran - 9/17/2008

Question
Hi, I'm in pre-calculus and i had some trouble with this problem, and i was wondering if you could help. The question is: A Ferris wheel has a radius of 35 ft. When the wheel rotates pi radians, how many feet does a point on the wheel travel? (give the answer to the nearest foot)

Thanks for your help

Answer
Hi Sara,

I think what you need here is not an angular velocity, since it doesn't ask how fast the point is traveling, but just the formula for arc length , which is

        s = r * @   , where r = radius and
                            @(theta) = central angle in radians.

Here, the radius is 35 ft and the radian measure is pi, so it just
becomes

                    s = 35 * pi = 109.9557 = 110 ft to nearest ft.

Hope this helps.
Steve