It is common to see birds of prey rising upward on thermals. the paths they take may be spiral-like. you can model the spiral motion as uniform circular motion combined with a constant upward velocity. assume a bird completes a circle of radius 6.00 m every 5.00 s and rises vertically at a rate of 3.00 m/s. find the angle between the bird's velocity vector and the horizontal

Radius of circle of spiral path = 6 m

Time period = 5 s

So the total length of the path =

time taken by bird to cover the distance = 5 s

so the speed of the bird = distance / time

so the tangential speed in horizontal direction = 7.54 m/s

vertical velocity by which it is rising upwards = 3 m/s

so the angle with the horizontal for net speed is given as

so velocity vector will make 21.7 degree with the horizontal

at positions a, g kinetic energy is maximum.

at position d, potential energy is maximum.