Tangential & Normal acceleration in Circular Motion

AI Thread Summary
Tangential acceleration in circular motion is the component of acceleration parallel to the velocity, while normal (or centripetal) acceleration is perpendicular to the velocity. The total acceleration can be expressed as the vector sum of these two components. The discussion also touches on the use of angular pseudovectors, which can be involved in expressing these accelerations. Participants shared resources to clarify concepts, including links to definitions and examples of pseudovectors. The conversation highlights the importance of understanding these components for analyzing motion in a circular path.
Shreya
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Homework Statement
Can I get an intuition (or a derivation) of the equations in the coloured boxes. Please refer the image.
Please be kind to help
Relevant Equations
Please Refer image
Screenshot_20210916-165713_Drive.png
 
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The tangential acceleration is the component of the acceleration that is parallel to the velocity.
For any two vectors ##\frac{\vec x.\vec y}{|\vec y|}## is the magnitude of the component of ##\vec x## parallel to ##\vec y## , and ##\frac{\vec y}{|\vec y|}## is the unit vector parallel to ##\vec y##, so the product of the two ##\frac{\vec x.\vec y}{|\vec y|}\frac{\vec y}{|\vec y|}## is the component of ##\vec x## parallel to ##\vec y##. That yields the first part of the first circled equation.

The normal (or centripetal) acceleration is the component normal to the velocity, the tangential and normal accelerations add vectorially to give the whole acceleration. I'll have to think more on how to view the vector equation for that.
 
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Given any vector ##\vec A## and any vector ##\vec V##,
one can write ##\vec A## as the sum of two vectors:
one parallel to ##\vec V## and the other (the rest of ##\vec A##) perpendicular to ##\vec V##.

\begin{align*}
\vec A
&=\vec A_{||V} + (\vec A - \vec A_{||V})
\end{align*}Now,
\begin{align*}
\vec A_{||V}
&= (\vec A \cdot \hat V) \hat V\\
&= (\vec A \cdot \frac{\vec V}{V}) \frac{\vec V}{V}
\end{align*}
[As a special case, let \hat V = \hat x.]
(Check that \vec A_{||V}\cdot \hat V=(\vec A \cdot \hat V)
and that (\vec A - \vec A_{||V})\cdot \hat V=0.)

For a trajectory, \hat V is tangent to the trajectory and (for a planar curve)
\hat V_{\bot} is normal to the trajectory.

So, if \vec A is the acceleration vector (\vec A =\frac{d}{dt}\vec V),
then \vec A_{||V} is the tangential-part of the acceleration vector (responsible for changing the magnitude of \vec V [i.e. speeding up or slowing down]),
and the other part is the normal-part of the acceleration vector (responsible for changing the direction of \vec V [turning the velocity vector] ).

Next, one has to express these in terms of the angular pseudovectors \vec \alpha and \vec \omega [probably should use a different "arrowhead"] (which when crossed with ordinary [polar] vectors result in ordinary [polar] vectors).

You'll probably [implicitly] use the "BAC-CAB" rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_product#Vector_triple_product
https://mathworld.wolfram.com/BAC-CABIdentity.html
 
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haruspex said:
The tangential acceleration is the component of the acceleration that is parallel to the velocity.
That makes sense now. Thanks haruspex. About the second part of 1st equation: I think they are multiplying the perpendicular component of angular acceleration with radius vector giving dv/dt.
 
robphy said:
pseudovectors
What is meant by pseudovectors?
 
PeroK said:
Everything is online these days:
True, thanks a lot for the link though!
 
I think I get both the equations now! Thanks a lot PeroK, robphy and Haruspex! I really appreciate your help.
 
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