Angular Acceleration - Questions

The Angular Acceleration Concept Builder is comprised of 40 questions. The questions are divided into 13 different question groups. Questions in the same group are rather similar to one another. The Concept Builder is coded to select at random a question from each group until a student is successful with that group of questions.

The questions and question groups are organized into three different activities. The activities are differentiated as follows:
 

• Getting the Angle on Acceleration  Question Groups 1-6: Students are provided words, a graph, or a table of data and must use the information to decide if an object is experiencing an angular acceleration or not.
• +, -, or 0  Question Groups 7-9: Students are given information about the clockwise or counterclockwise motion of a rotating object and whether it is slowing down, speedinig up, or moving at a constant speed; they must identify the angular acceleration as being either positive, negative, or zero.
• Crunch the Numbers  Question Groups 10-13: Students are provided quantitative information about a rotating object and must calculate the angular acceleration.

The questions from each group are shown below. Teachers are encouraged to view the questions in order to judge which activity is most appropriate for their classes. We recommend doing all three activities. 

The Physics Classroom grants teachers and other users the right to print these questions for private use. Users are also granted the right to copy the text and modify it for their own use. However, this document should not be uploaded to other servers for distribution to and/or display by others. The Physics Classroom website should remain the only website or server from which the document is distributed or displayed. We also provide a PDF that teachers can use under the same conditions. We have included a link to the PDF near the bottom of this page.

 

 
Activity 1: Getting the Angle on Acceleration
Question Group 1
Question 1
A bicyle wheel is slowing spinning, undergoing an angular position change of 1.0 radians each second. Is the bicycle wheel experiencing an angular acceleration?
 
 
Question 2
A bicyle wheel is slowing spinning, undergoing an angular position change of 1.5 radians each second. Is the bicycle wheel experiencing an angular acceleration?
 
 
Question 3
A bicyle wheel is slowing spinning, undergoing an angular position change of 2.0 radians each second. Is the bicycle wheel experiencing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 
 
Question Group 2
Question 4
A bicycle wheel is observed to be changing its angular velocity by 0.25 rad/s every second for time of 10 seconds. Is the bicycle wheel undergoing an angular acceleration?
 
 
Question 5
A bicycle wheel is observed to be changing its angular velocity by 0.40 rad/s every second for time of 8 seconds. Is the bicycle wheel undergoing an angular acceleration?
 
 
Question 6
A bicycle wheel is observed to be changing its angular velocity by 0.50 rad/s every second for time of 6 seconds. Is the bicycle wheel undergoing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 

 
Question Group 3
Question 7
The plot shows the changes in angular position (θ) of a fan blade over the course of 5 seconds. Is the fan blade experiencing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
Question 8
The plot shows the changes in angular position (θ) of a fan blade over the course of 10 seconds. Is the fan blade experiencing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 
 


 
 

Question 9
The plot shows the changes in angular position (θ) of a fan blade over the course of 5 seconds. Is the fan blade experiencing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 
 
 

 


 
Question 10
The plot shows the changes in angular position (θ) of a fan blade over the course of 10 seconds. Is the fan blade experiencing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 
 

 

 

 
Question Group 4
Question 11
The angular velocity (ω) as a function of time for the rotating fan blades of an air conditioning unit are shown at the right. Are the fan blades experiencing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
Question 12
The angular velocity (ω) as a function of time for the rotating fan blades of an air conditioning unit are shown at the right. Are the fan blades experiencing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Question 13
The angular velocity (ω) as a function of time for the rotating fan blades of an air conditioning unit are shown at the right. Are the fan blades experiencing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
Question 14
The angular velocity (ω) as a function of time for the rotating fan blades of an air conditioning unit are shown at the right. Are the fan blades experiencing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 
 
 



 
Question Group 5
Question 15
The table shows how the angular position (θ) of a point on a rotating platform is changing with respect to time (t). Is the platform undergoing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
Question 16
The table shows how the angular position (θ) of a point on a rotating platform is changing with respect to time (t). Is the platform undergoing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Question 17
The table shows how the angular position (θ) of a point on a rotating platform is changing with respect to time (t). Is the platform undergoing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Question 18
The table shows how the angular position (θ) of a point on a rotating platform is changing with respect to time (t). Is the platform undergoing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
Question Group 6
Question 19
The table shows how the angular velocity (ω) of a point on a rotating platform is changing with respect to time (t). Is the platform undergoing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Question 20
The table shows how the angular velocity (ω) of a point on a rotating platform is changing with respect to time (t). Is the platform undergoing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Question 21
The table shows how the angular velocity (ω) of a point on a rotating platform is changing with respect to time (t). Is the platform undergoing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Question 22
The table shows how the angular velocity (ω) of a point on a rotating platform is changing with respect to time (t). Is the platform undergoing an angular acceleration?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Activity 2: +, -, or 0
Question Group 7
Question 23
A bicycle wheel is rotating counterclockwise. It is gradually slowing down.
The angular velocity is __________,
           a. positive                    b. negative                c. zero
 
and the angular acceleration is __________.
           a. positive                    b. negative                c. zero
 
 
Question 24
A bicycle wheel is rotating clockwise. It is gradually slowing down.
The angular velocity is __________,
           a. positive                    b. negative                c. zero
 
and the angular acceleration is __________.
           a. positive                    b. negative                c. zero
 
 
 
Question Group 8
Question 25
A bicycle wheel is rotating counterclockwise. It is gradually speeding up.
The angular velocity is __________,
           a. positive                    b. negative                c. zero
 
and the angular acceleration is __________.
           a. positive                    b. negative                c. zero
 
 
Question 26
A bicycle wheel is rotating clockwise. It is gradually speeding up.
The angular velocity is __________,
           a. positive                    b. negative                c. zero
 
and the angular acceleration is __________.
           a. positive                    b. negative                c. zero
 
 
 
 
Question Group 9
Question 27
A bicycle wheel is rotating counterclockwise. It's angular speed is constant.
The angular velocity is __________,
           a. positive                    b. negative                c. zero
 
and the angular acceleration is __________.
           a. positive                    b. negative                c. zero
 
 
 
 
Question 28
A bicycle wheel is rotating clockwise. It's angular speed is constant.
The angular velocity is __________,
           a. positive                    b. negative                c. zero
 
and the angular acceleration is __________.
           a. positive                    b. negative                c. zero
 
 
 
 
Activity 3: Crunching the Numbers
Question Group 10
Question 29
A spinning platform is rotating clockwise at 10 rad/s. It slows to a stop in 5.0 seconds. What is its angular acceleration in rad/s²?
 
 
Question 30
A spinning platform is rotating clockwise at 12 rad/s. It slows to a stop in 4.0 seconds. What is its angular acceleration in rad/s²?
 
 
Question 31
A spinning platform is rotating clockwise at 10 rad/s. It slows to a stop in 4 seconds. What is its angular acceleration in rad/s²?
 
 
 
 
Question Group 11
Question 32
A pulley is rotating counterclockwise at 1.2 rad/s. It increases its angular velocity to 4.8 rad/s in 3.0 s. What is its angular acceleration in rad/s²?
 
 
Question 33
A pulley is rotating counterclockwise at 1.5 rad/s. It increases its angular velocity to 6.0 rad/s in 4.0 s. What is its angular acceleration in rad/s²?
 
 
Question 34
A pulley is rotating counterclockwise at 1.6 rad/s. It increases its angular velocity to 6.4 rad/s in 8.0 s. What is its angular acceleration in rad/s²?
 
 
 
 
Question Group 12
Question 35
The angular velocity (ω) as a function of time for a rotating object is shown at the right. What is its angular acceleration in rad/s²?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Question 36
The angular velocity (ω) as a function of time for a rotating object is shown at the right. What is its angular acceleration in rad/s²?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Question 37
The angular velocity (ω) as a function of time for a rotating object is shown at the right. What is its angular acceleration in rad/s²?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Question Group 12
Question 38
The angular velocity (ω) as a function of time for a rotating object is shown at the right. What is its angular acceleration in rad/s²?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Question 39
The angular velocity (ω) as a function of time for a rotating object is shown at the right. What is its angular acceleration in rad/s²?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Question 40
The angular velocity (ω) as a function of time for a rotating object is shown at the right. What is its angular acceleration in rad/s²?