Question

A piece of clay is stuck to the edge of a potters wheel. Draw a diagram to show the path of the clay if it comes unstuck while the wheel is rotating

Answer 1

A piece of clay is stuck to the edge of a potter's wheel. Draw a diagram to show the path of the clay if it comes unstuck while the wheel is rotating

**Solution:**

When piece of clay comes unstuck, it has a linear velocity $V = \omega R$ ($\omega$ – angular velocity of the wheel, $R$ – radius of the wheel). Hence, the trajectory of the piece will be parabola (velocity $V$ along X-axis and acceleration $g$ across Y-axis):