A Ferris wheel has 20 cars that are equally spaced around the circumference of the wheel. The wheel rotates so that the car at the bottom of the ride is replaced by the next car. By how many degrees does the wheel rotate?

1 Answer
Oct 5, 2017

18 degrees

Explanation:

If each car is spaced evenly, then we know that the angle between each car is equal. If there are 20 cars, we know there are twenty of this angle. Regardless of the radius of the Ferris wheel, there will always be 20 of this angle measurement per wheel.

If there are 360 degrees in one circle,

And one car takes up #1/20# of said circle,

#(360" degrees")/(20 " cars")= 18" degrees per car"#