Question

The tire pictured below is rolling to the left at a constant speed without slipping on a horizontal roadway.
What is the direction of the acceleration of the part of the tire that is in contact with the road?

• A. Left
• B. Right
• C. Up
• D. Down
• E. The acceleration of this part of the tire is zero

Answer 1

Answer: (C)

Up

Since the tire moves without slipping on the surface, the bottommost point of the tire in contact with surface is not under acceleration horizontally at the moment. Otherwise it would have been slipping.

However it experiences a centripetal acceleration upwards due to rotation.

Hence correct answer is option C.