CIRCULAR MOTION

CONTENTS

• CIRCULAR MOTION
• ANGULAR DISPLACEMENT
• ANGULAR SPEED
• ANGULAR VELOCITY
• CENTRIPETAL FORCES &
ACCELERATION
 CIRCULAR MOTION
• If an object/ body is moving along a
circular path it is said to be in circular
motion.
• Uniform circular motion : If the object
move with uniform speed along the
circular path, it is said to have uniform
circular motion.
• http://www.animations.physics.unsw.edu.a
u/mechanics/chapter3_circularmotion.html
#3.1
 Angular displacement
• The angle through which the radius
vector representing the position of a
particle rotates is called angular
displacement
• The change in position of the particle in
a circular path with respect to its centre
is called angular displacement.
• The angular displacement of a body
with respect to a reference line is
denoted as θ.
 Angular Displacement Units

• The angular displacement can be

measured in degree.
• But the S.I. Unit for angular displacement
is Radians.
• One radian is defined as the angle
subtended at the centre of a circle by
an arc which is equal to length of the
arc divided by the radius of the circle.
 Conversion between degree
and radians
• When an object makes through a
complete circle,
• angular displacement in the entire circle
is 3600 = 2π radians
• 1 0 = 2π/ 180
• 1 radian = 180 / 2π degrees
 Question to check how far you
understood
• By how many degrees does the angular
displacement of the hour hand of a clock
change each hour ?
 Speed steady , but velocity ?
• An object moving in uniform circular motion is
moving in a circle with a uniform or constant
speed.
• Is it accelerating ?
• Yes, because, it is changing the velocity.
• Since velocity is a vector which has both
magnitude and direction, a change in either the
magnitude or the direction constitutes a change
in the velocity.
 Angular velocity
• Angular velocity, also called rotational
velocity, is a quantitative expression of the
amount of rotation that a spinning object
undergoes per unit time.
Vector – angular velocity
 Centripetal acceleration
• An object moving in a circle is
experiencing acceleration. Even if moving
around the perimeter of the circle with a
constant speed, there is still a change in
velocity and subsequently an acceleration.

This acceleration is directed TOWARDS

THE CENTER of the circle.
‘ω’ represents the angular velocity and ‘α’
represents the angular acceleration.
 Centripetal force
• According to Newton’s second
law of motion, every object which
has an acceleration will
experience a net force in the
direction of acceleration.
 Centripetal force
So for an object moving in a circle, there
must be an inward force acting upon it
in order to cause its inward acceleration
which is called centripetal force.
The word "centripetal" means CENTER-
SEEKING. For objects moving in circular
motion, there is a net force acting
towards the center which causes the
object to seek the center.
http://w3.shorecrest.org/~Lisa_Peck/Physics/syllabus/mechanics/circularmotion/Images/
wi1.gif
 Centripetal force

http://www.regentsprep.org/regents/physics/phys06/bcentrif/default.htm

http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/legacy/gravity-and-orbits
 Questions.

End of the chapter questions.