Question

Swing a bucket half full of water back and forth by your side and then vigorously swing it in a full circle. The water should stay in the bucket. Using the mechanical terms of centripetal force and inertia, explain why the water stays in the bucket.

Answer 1

Answer 2

When we vigorously string a bucket of full of water in a full circle the water pushes the bottom of the bucket due to the centripetal force. Also due to the inertia of direction the water moves to the sides of a bucket so as to continue its motion in a direction tangent to the circle. At the same time the gravitational force pulls the water downwards .

Therefore, as long as we swing the bucket vigorously i.e its centripetal force is quite large as compared to the weight of the water then the water won't spell out of the bucket.

The velocity of bucket at highest point of motion should be larger than √rg , where r is radius of circular motion, so as to water does not spill out of the bucket