Banking Of Roads
A curved highway of radius 80 m is banked so that vehicles can negotiate it without relying on friction. If the safe speed for this frictionless banking is 20 m/s and g is 10 m/s^2, what is the banking angle's tangent?
Select the correct option:
Solution
0.50
On a frictionless banked road the horizontal component of the normal force alone supplies the centripetal force needed for circular motion, while its vertical component balances gravity. Dividing these two equilibrium relations gives the design condition tanθ=rgv2. Substituting the given data, tanθ=80×10(20)2=800400=0.50. The value 0.25 would correspond to half the required centripetal demand, perhaps from using v instead of v2 incorrectly. The value 0.75 overstates the angle and does not satisfy the force balance for the given speed and radius. The value 1.00 would demand a 45-degree bank, which corresponds to a much higher design speed than 20 m/s on this radius. An important conceptual feature is that the design relation contains no mass term, so the same banking angle works for a light motorcycle and a heavy lorry alike, since both the centripetal requirement and the supporting normal force scale with mass. This is the NCERT frictionless banking relation central to circular dynamics, and including friction would merely widen the band of safe speeds about this ideal value. As a plausibility check, a moderate tangent of 0.5 corresponds to roughly a 27-degree bank, a realistic slope for a highway curve at this speed.
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About This Question
- Subject
- physics
- Chapter
- laws of motion
- Topic
- banking of roads
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Year
- 2025
Solution
Correct Answer:
0.50
On a frictionless banked road the horizontal component of the normal force alone supplies the centripetal force needed for circular motion, while its vertical component balances gravity. Dividing these two equilibrium relations gives the design condition tanθ=rgv2. Substituting the given data, tanθ=80×10(20)2=800400=0.50. The value 0.25 would correspond to half the required centripetal demand, perhaps from using v instead of v2 incorrectly. The value 0.75 overstates the angle and does not satisfy the force balance for the given speed and radius. The value 1.00 would demand a 45-degree bank, which corresponds to a much higher design speed than 20 m/s on this radius. An important conceptual feature is that the design relation contains no mass term, so the same banking angle works for a light motorcycle and a heavy lorry alike, since both the centripetal requirement and the supporting normal force scale with mass. This is the NCERT frictionless banking relation central to circular dynamics, and including friction would merely widen the band of safe speeds about this ideal value. As a plausibility check, a moderate tangent of 0.5 corresponds to roughly a 27-degree bank, a realistic slope for a highway curve at this speed.
This medium difficulty physics question is from the chapter laws of motion, covering the topic of banking of roads. It appeared in the 2025 exam.
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