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Locating a point in circular orbit on the Cartesian plane after some $t$ seconds

Physics Asked by Kara Kirkland on December 23, 2020

The second hand of an analog clock has angular velocity $omega=pi/30$ rad.s-1. The blue body in the image below mimics the hand’s clockwise motion on the Cartesian plane with the center of revolution at $(0,0)$, the radius $r$ being, say, $2$ units, and initial position $(0,2)$. How can we determine the body’s coordinate location $(x,y)$ after t seconds?
enter image description here

From here, I was under the impression that we can calculate it as follows:
$x=r*cos(omega*t)$
$y=r*sin(omega*t)$
Taking t to be $30$ seconds, this gives us:
$x=2*cos(pi/30*30)=1.997$
$y=2*sin(pi/30*30)=0.110$
Problem is, in reality, after $30$ seconds, the point should be at $(0,-2)$. Why did the formulae give conflicting results?

One Answer

The formula you have written is for when you taking angle $omega t$ from horizontal $x$-axis but in your case, the point is starting from the y-axis thus it's necessary to take the angle $omega t$ from the positive y-axis. This will turn your formula to $$y=rcos(omega t)$$ $$x=rsin(omega t)$$ Now you can proceed from here. :)


We are given $omega=pi/30$ rad-sec$^{-1}$ After $30$ sec $$y=2cosleft(frac{pi}{30}cdot 30right)=2cos(pi)=-2$$ and $$x=2sinleft(frac{pi}{30}cdot 30right)=2sin(pi)=0$$

Correct answer by Young Kindaichi on December 23, 2020

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