Discussion and hints:

Note that the Cartesian components of for the position of P are both known explicitly in terms of time. Finding the Cartesian components of velocity and acceleration are found simply through differentiation with respect to time.

Provided above is an animated GIF of the motion for P.  Notice how you can observe from this motion the angles defining the directions of the velocity and acceleration. We see in the animation that the velocity is always tangent to the path, and the acceleration vector tends to point "inward" on the curved path. We will see in the next lecture that these characteristics of the velocity and acceleration vectors are valid regardless of the path.

We encourage you to interact with your colleagues here on conversations about this homework problem.