Design of Flywheel with a Moving Hole

A special apparatus has been designed to study linear, circular, and rotational motions. This apparatus consists of a flywheel, rotating in horizontal plane by the mean of a hanging mass. This flywheel carries a hole, which can be moved on a radial rail. This hole can be fixed at desired distance from the flywheel axis. Putting a metallic sphere on this hole gives centripetal motion with certain radius to this sphere. The moving hole acts by normal force on the metallic sphere and moves it in circular path. The increasing angular velocity of the metallic sphere has its maximum value when the sphere leaves the hole. Theoretical and experimental analysis for this apparatus shows that the centripetal acceleration depends only on the geometry of both sphere and hole. The designed apparatus has a very simple design and does not have any undesired forces.