Centrifugal and circular motion

Click For Summary

Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around the dynamics of a block in a rotating cabin and a particle in a groove on a rotating disk. Participants explore the effects of centrifugal and Coriolis forces on motion in non-inertial frames, as well as the implications of these forces in an inertial ground frame.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • The original poster attempts to clarify the trajectory of a block when friction is insufficient to maintain circular motion, questioning the role of centrifugal force and how to analyze motion from different frames of reference.
  • Some participants suggest considering the Coriolis force and its impact on the trajectory of the block, while also questioning the motion of the block in the ground frame.
  • Another participant introduces vector algebra as a potential method to analyze the motion of a particle in a groove on a rotating disk, discussing the complexities of radial and tangential accelerations.

Discussion Status

The discussion is active, with participants providing insights into the forces at play and exploring different frames of reference. There is acknowledgment of the complexities involved in analyzing motion in rotating systems, and some guidance has been offered regarding the use of vector identities to approach the problem.

Contextual Notes

Participants note that certain forces, such as the Coriolis force, may not be included in their syllabus, which could affect their understanding of the problem. There is also a mention of simplifying assumptions, such as neglecting friction in some analyses.

clavin
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
ell let's say there's a cabin and its rotating about its axisand we have a block of mass m
placed (not at the the centre of the cabin)
and there's some friction between the the block and the surface
now let's say the speed of the cabin is increased a lil high so that friction can no more balance it
to make the block rotate it in a circular motion
so now if i see from the cabin frame then there's the centrifugal force which pushes the block to the wall
so now my qs is
firstly have i stated the trajectory correct that in the case friction cannot balance then the block will move outward in a straight line to towards the wall of the cabin

2nd qs. in the cabin frame i used the centrifugal force to see the motion
but how do i know the blocks motion in ground frame?
in ground frame there is no centrifugal force so why now is the block moving outward?


*edit

well i forgot that in the above qs there will be coroilis force acting
so let me change the situation
lets say i have a circular disk rotating about it axis and a grove(channel) from the centre to the outer end of the disk
and i have placed a particle in the grove.

now again the same qs how to find the force that makes the particle move outward from the ground frame
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
clavin said:
so now if i see from the cabin frame then there's the centrifugal force which pushes the block to the wall
so now my qs is
firstly have i stated the trajectory correct that in the case friction cannot balance then the block will move outward in a straight line to towards the wall of the cabin
Once it starts moving there will also be a coriolis force to contend with, thus the trajectory won't be a straight radial line.

2nd qs. in the cabin frame i used the centrifugal force to see the motion
but how do i know the blocks motion in ground frame?
in ground frame there is no centrifugal force so why now is the block moving outward?
Because it has a tangential velocity and insufficient force to keep it moving in a circle.
 
ok tnx for that
i forgot about the coriolis force
anyways that's not in my sylabus
so i am going to edit the qs a bit
please refer to the first post
 
One way to resolve the 'bead-in-a-groove' problem is to brute-force it with vector algebra. This approach is, however, less than satisfactory.

Rewriting the vector identity for acceleration in terms of radial and polar coordinates:

[tex]\vec a_{radial}=[\frac{d^2 r}{dt^2}-r(\frac{d\theta}{dt})^2]\hat r[/tex]

[tex]\vec a_{tangential}=\frac{1}{r}[\frac{d}{dt}(r^2\frac{d\theta}{dt})]\hat \theta[/tex]

These identities are far from trivial, and personally, I had to look them up, but they are valid in any frame of reference.

Let's assume for the sake of simplicity that there's no friction, and that the normal force can only act perpendicular to the grooves. That means that the bead will only experience a normal force acting in the direction of the tangential velocity in the laboratory frame, while the groove rotates with constant angular velocity [tex]\omega[/tex]

Using Newton's second law:
[tex]a_{radial}=0[/tex] (No forces in the radial direction!)
[tex]a_{tangential}=0[/tex] (The angular velocity is constant!)

Plugging all we know into the two identities for the accelerations:
[tex]\vec\frac{d^2 r}{dt^2} = \omega ^2 \vec r[/tex]
[tex]\vec N=2m\omega\frac{dr}{dt}\hat \theta[/tex]

These sorts of problems break down what we usually perceive as radial and tangential accelerations. For instance, we were just shown that there is 0 "radial" acceleration, but there is an acceleration in the radial direction!
Things get wonky here.
 

Similar threads

  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
1K
Replies
55
Views
3K
  • · Replies 13 ·
Replies
13
Views
2K
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
3K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
Replies
1
Views
1K
Replies
19
Views
4K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
4K
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
2K
Replies
5
Views
2K