Pendulum on accelerating bus · CAP 2019 #6

Physics · mechanics

Problem

A woman riding on a bus suspends a ball of mass m from the ceiling using a massless string while the bus is moving at constant speed on a horizontal road. When the bus is accelerating, with its engine off, down a hill inclined downward with a slope s, what is the change of the angle at which the ball is suspended as observed by the woman on the bus? a) 0 b) tan⁡−1s\tan^{-1}s to the front of the bus c) tan⁡−1s\tan^{-1}s to the back of the bus d) sin⁡−1s\sin^{-1}s to the front of the bus e) sin⁡−1s\sin^{-1}s to the back of the bus f) not enough information

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