Circular motion-centripetal acceleration

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
2 replies · 5K views
allok
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
hi

This latex code is giving me some problems. I write one thing, it displays something completely different

In circular motion velocity only changes direction but not size

change of velocity - [tex]\Delta v[/tex]
Change of angle - [tex]\Delta T[/tex]
Velocity - V
Centripetal acceleration - a

delta(V) = V * delta(T)

When delta(T) approaches its limit (goes to zero), change of velocity has same direction as acceleration vector?

We compute the magnitude of velocity change with :

Delta(v) = v * Delta(T)

I see this being true when change of angle approaches its limit ( goes to zero ), since then length of circular arc ( with radius begin velocity vector ) equals [tex]\Delta v[/tex]. But that is not true if delta(T) is not approaching limit. So how can we use formula

delta(v) = V * delta(T)

in cases were delta(T) is not approaching zero, since I assume length of circle arc is quite different than delta(T) if delta(T) doesn't go to zero?

cheers
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
I think your original assumption may be incorrect. If you want to relate the linear velocity of the object on the circle circumference with the change in angle, it would be:

[tex]s = r\theta[/tex]
[tex]\frac{ds}{dt} = r\frac{d\theta}{dt}[/tex]
[tex]v = r\frac{d\theta}{dt}[/tex]

where s is the circle arclength, r is the circle radius, and theta is the angle. The [tex]\frac{d\theta}{dt}[/tex] would be equal to your [tex]\Delta T[/tex].
 
mezarashi said:
I think your original assumption may be incorrect. If you want to relate the linear velocity of the object on the circle circumference with the change in angle, it would be:

[tex]s = r\theta[/tex]
[tex]\frac{ds}{dt} = r\frac{d\theta}{dt}[/tex]
[tex]v = r\frac{d\theta}{dt}[/tex]

where s is the circle arclength, r is the circle radius, and theta is the angle. The [tex]\frac{d\theta}{dt}[/tex] would be equal to your [tex]\Delta T[/tex].

I don't get it. First of all, [tex]v = r\frac{d\theta}{dt}[/tex] is not same formula as delta(v)=v*delta(theta)

I still don't understand why delta(v) = v * delta(theta) would give us correct result when delta(theta) is anything but [tex]d\theta[/tex] ?