The amusement park ride shown above takes riders straight up a tall tower and then releases an apparatus holding seats. This apparatus free-falls back to Earth and is stopped safely right above the ground. Which of the following indicates the magnitude of the gravitational force exerted on a rider of mass m on the way up and on the way down?

In both way up and way down the magnitude is equal to mg.

Learn more: link

initial speed when it is dropped is 150 ft/s

now at the same moment the acceleration due to gravity is perpendicular to its velocity

so as we know that

now we have centripetal acceleration a = 32 ft/s^2 as its perpendicular to velocity

while tangential acceleration at the same moment will be zero

so

now radius of curvature is given as

so the radius of curvature just after it is dropped is 703.125 ft