Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
All the examples of motion we've seen so far have involved acceleration which is both constant in magnitude, and constant in direction. Gravity, for example, accelerates objects at 9.8 m/s2 downwards. But what if the direction of the acceleration is constantly changing?
In general, that's a very complicated question. But there's one common situation which has a relatively simple solution. Suppose that the motion is circular, like that of the cars moving around the old Langhorne Speedway.
Image courtesy of
The Library Company of Philadelphia
If you watch this clip of a race in action, you'll see that the DIRECTION of the cars is constantly changing -- they are always turning to the left. (Click on the image to see the video)
Image and video courtesy of
NascarAllOut
How can we describe this sort of circular motion at a constant speed, or uniform circular motion, using kinematic equations?
Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.