A car goes around a curve (the arc is part of a circle with a radius of 25 ft.) with a speed of 20.0 ft/sec. What is the magnitude of acceleration?
Well, if I were driving that car, I'd probably accelerate at a rate of "extremely slow" because I'm a very cautious driver. But in this case, we need to calculate the magnitude of acceleration.
To do that, we can use the equation for centripetal acceleration: a = v^2/r, where v is the velocity and r is the radius of the curve.
Plugging in the values, we have a = (20.0 ft/sec)^2 / 25 ft.
So, the magnitude of acceleration is (400.0 ft^2/sec^2) / 25 ft, which simplifies to 16.0 ft/sec^2.
That's the official answer, but if you ask me, the real calculation we should be making is how many clowns can fit in that car while it's maneuvering around the curve. What do you think?