Consider a level flight turn of a propeller-driven airplane. It can make a complete circular turn in 3.0 minutes. If the plane's speed is 147 m/s, find the centripetal acceleration of the plane. Found the final answer to 1 decimal place.

The speed of the plane is given as 147 m/s. Time taken to complete the circular turn is 3 minutes. So, calculate the distance travelled by the plane in 3 minutes while moving at a speed of 147 m/s.

distance = speed * time

Put the known values and solve.

$$\begin{gathered} d=\left(147 \frac{m}{s}\right)\times \left(3 min\right)\left(\frac{60 s}{1 min}\right) \\ =26460 m \end{gathered}$$

Now, as the plane completes a circular turn in 3 min. So, the distance 26460 m is equal to the distance covered in circular turn i.e. circumference of the circle. Thus,

$2\pi r=26460 m$

Thus, solve for the radius of the circular turn.

$$\begin{gathered} r=\frac{26460 m}{2\pi } \\ =4211.239794 m \end{gathered}$$