Bicycle wheel experiment question

[Johnny5]

Consider the bicycle wheel experiment described at the following site.

 

Suppose that you get the wheel spinning at a rate of 10 revolutions per second. I think thats reasonable.

 

Then you let go of the handle.

 

The handle is going to trace out a circle, in the appropriate frame.

 

denote the distance from the center of mass of the wheel assembly, to the point where it is attached to the chain by R.

 

Suppose that you measure the time it takes the wheel axis to complete one rotation as 6 seconds, and to a reasonable approximation w is constant during the first 'orbit'

 

Using your measurement of w, and of R, what is the mass of the bicycle wheel?

 

Introduce whatever you need to solve the problem.

 

Regards