Let's say we observe some object-- let's say for the sake of argument, it's happening in space

It's traveling in a circular path with the magnitude of its velocity being constant Let me draw
its velocity vector The length of this arrow is the magnitude of the velocity I want to be clear.
In order for it to be traveling in the circular path the direction of its velocity needs to be
changing So this time the velocity vector might look like that After a few seconds the
velocity vector might look like this After another few seconds the velocity vector might look
like this I'm just sampling. I actually could've sampled after a less time and it would be right
over there but I am just sampling sometimes as it travels around the circle After a few more
seconds the velocity vector might look something like that I want to think about what needs
to happen what kind of force would have to act in particular the direction of the force would
have to act on this object in order for the velocity vector to change like that? This remind
ourselves if there was no force acting on this body this comes straight from Newton's 1st Law
of motion then the velocity would not change neither the magnitude nor the direction of the
velocity will change If there were no force acting on the subject it would just continue going
on in the direction it was going it wouldn't curve; it wouldn't turn; the direction of its velocity
wasn't changing Let's think about what the direction of that force would have to be and to do
that, I'm gonna copy and paste these velocity vectors and keep track of what the direction of
the change in velocity has to be Copy and paste that So that is our first velocity vector Copy
all of these. This is our second one right over here Copy and paste it I'm just looking at it
from the object's point of view how does the velocity vector change from each of these points
in time to the next? Let me get all of these in there This green one That. Copy and paste it
That. I could keep going, keep drawing velocity vectors around the circle but let me do this
orange one right over here Copy and paste So between this magenta time and this purple time
what was the change in velocity? Well, we could look at that purely from these vectors right
here The change in velocity between those two times was that right over there That is our
change in velocity So I take this vector and say in what direction was the velocity changing
when this vector was going on this part of the arc It's roughly--if I just translate that vector
right over here it's roughly going in that direction So that is the direction of our change in
velocity This triangle is delta; delta is for change Now think about the next time period
between this blue or purple period and this green period Our change in velocity would look
like that So while it's traveling along this part of the arc roughly it's the change in velocity if
we draw the vector starting at the object It would look something like this I'm just translating
this vector right over here I'll do it one more time From this green point in time to this orange
point in time and obviously we're just sampling points continuously moving and the change
in velocity actually continues changing but hopefully you're going to see the pattern here So
between those two points in time, this is our change in velocity And let me translate that
vector right over there It would look something like that change in velocity So what do you
see, if I were to keep drawing more of these change in velocity vectors you would see at this
point, the change in velocity would have to be going generally in that direction At this point,
the change in velocity would have to be going generally in that direction So what do you see?
What's the pattern for any point along this circular curve? Well, the change in velocity first of
all, is perpendicular to the direction of the velocity itself And we haven't proved it, but it at
least looks like it Looks like this is perpendicular And even more interesting, it looks like it's
seeking the center The change in velocity is constantly going in the direction of the center of
our circle And we know from Newton's first law that if--the magnitude could stay the same
but the velocity change in any way, either the magnitude or the direction or both there must
be a net force acting on the object And the net force is acting in the direction of the
acceleration which is causing the change in velocity So the force must be acting in the same
direction as this change in velocity So in order make this object go in this circular there must
be some force kind of pulling the object towards the center and a force that is perpendicular
to its directional motion And this force is called the centripetal force Centripetal Not to be
confused with centrifugal force, very different Centripetal force, centri- you might recognize
as center and then -petal is seeking the center. It is center seeking So this centripetal force,
something is pulling on this object towards the center that causes it to go into this circular
motion Inward pulling causes inward acceleration So that's centripetal force causing
centripetal acceleration which causes the object to go towards the center The whole point
why I did this is that at least it wasn't intuitive to me that if you have this object going in a
circle that the change in velocity, the acceleration, the force acting on this object would
actually have to be towards the center The whole reason why I drew these vectors and then
translate them over here and drew these change in velocity vectors is to show you that the
change in velocity is actually towards the center of this circle Now with that out of the way,
you might say, well, where is this happening in in everyday life or in reality in some way it
perform And the most typical example of this and this is something that I think most of us
have done when we were kid if you had a yoyo My best attempt to draw a yoyo If you have a
yoyo and if you whip it around on a string you know that the yoyo goes in a circle Even
though its speed might be constant, or the magnitude of its velocity might be constant we
know that the direction of its velocity is constantly changing It's going in a circle and what's
causing it to go in a circle is your hand right over here pulling on this string and providing
tension into the string So there's a force, the centripetal force in this yoyo example is the
tension in the string that's constantly pulling on the yoyo towards the center and that's why
that yoyo goes in a circle Another example that you are probably somewhat familiar with or
at least have heard about is if you have something in orbit around the planet So let's say this
is Earth right here and you have some type of a satellite that is in orbit around Earth That
satellite has some velocity at any given moment in time What's keeping it from not flying out
into space and keeping it going in a circle is the force of gravity So in the example of a
satellite or anything in the orbit even the moon in orbit around the Earth the thing that's
keeping an orbit as opposed to flying out into space is a centripetal force of Earth's gravity
Now another example, this is probably the most everyday example because we do it all the
time If you imagine a car traveling around the racetrack Let's draw a racetrack. If I have a
racetrack Before I tell you the answer, I'll have you think about it It's circular. Let's view the
racetrack from above If I have a car on a racetrack. I want you to pause it before I tell it to
you because I think it's an interesting thing think about It seems like a very obvious thing
that's happening We've all experienced; we've all taken turns in cars So we're looking at the
top of a car. Tires When you see a car going at a constant speed so on the speedometer, it
might say, 60 mph, 40 mph, whatever the constant speed but it's traveling in a circle so what
is keeping--what is the centripetal force in that example? There's no obvious string being
pulled on the car towards the center There is no some magical gravity pulling it towards the
center of the circle There's obviously gravity pulling you down towards the ground but
nothing pulling it to the side like this So what's causing this car to go in the circle as opposed
to going straight? And I encourage you to pause it right now before I tell you the answer
Assuming you now unpaused it and I will now tell you the answer The thing that's keeping it
going in the circle is actually the force of friction It's actually the force between the resist
movement to the side between the tires and the road And a good example of that is if you
would remove the friction if you would make the car driving on oil or on ice or if you would
shave the treads of the tire or something then the car would not be able to do this So it's
actually the force of friction in this example I encourage you to think about that

Let's say I have some object that's traveling in a circular path just like this. And what I've drawn here
is its velocity vector at different points along that path. And so this right over here is going to be v1,
velocity vector 1. This is going to be velocity vector 2. And this right over here is going to be velocity
vector 3. And what we're going to assume, in this video, is that the magnitude of these velocity
vectors is constant. Or another way to think about it is that the speed is constant. So I'll just say
lowercase v without the arrow on top-- so this is going to be a scalar quantity-- I'll call this the speed.
Or you could call this the magnitude of these vectors. And this is going to be constant. So this is
going to be equal to the magnitude of vector 1, which is equal to the magnitude of vector 2. The
direction is clearly changing, but the magnitude is going to be the same, which is equal to the
magnitude of vector 3. And we're going to assume that it's traveling in a path, in a circle with radius
r. And what I'm going to do is, I'm going to draw a position vector at each point. So let's call r1--
actually I'll just do it in pink-- let's call r1 that right over there. That's position vector r1. That is
position vector r2. So the position is clearly changing. That's position vector r2. And that is position
vector r3. But the magnitude of our position vectors are clearly the same. And I'm going to call the
magnitude of our position vectors r. And that's just the radius of the circle. It's this distance right
over here. So r is equal to the magnitude of r1, which is equal to the magnitude of r2, which is equal
to the magnitude of r3. Now what I want to do, in this video, is prove to you visually, that given this
radius and given this speed, that the magnitude of the centripetal acceleration-- and I'll just write
that as a sub c, I don't have an arrow on top, so this is a scalar quantity. So the magnitude of the
centripetal acceleration is going to be equal to our speed squared, our constant speed squared,
divided by the radius of the circle. I want you to feel good that this is indeed the case by the end of
this video. And to understand that, what I want to do is I want to re-plot these velocity vectors on
another circle and just think about how the vectors themselves are changing. So let's copy and paste
this. So let me copy and paste v1. So copy and paste. So that is v-- actually I want to do it from the
center --so that is v1. Then let me do the same thing for v2. So let me copy and paste it. That is v2.
And then let me do it also for v3. I'll just get the vector part; I don't have to get the label. So copy
and paste it. And that right over there is vector v3. And let me clean this up a little bit. So that's
clearly v2. I don't think we have to label anymore. We know that v2 is in orange. And what is the
radius of this circle going to be right over here? Well, the radius of this circle is going to be the
magnitude of the velocity vectors. And we already know the magnitude of the velocity vectors is this
quantity v, this scalar quantity. So the radius of this circle is v. The radius of this circle, we already
know, is equal to r. And just as the velocity vector is what's giving us the change in position over
time, the change in position vector over time, what's the vector that's going to give us the change in
our velocity vector over time? Well, that's going to be our acceleration vectors. So you will have
some acceleration. We'll call this a1. We'll call this a2. And I'll call this a3. And I want to make sure
that you get the analogy that's going on here. As we go around in this circle, the position vectors first
they point out to the left, then the upper, kind of in a maybe 11 o'clock position, or I guess the top
left, and then to the top. So it's pointing in these different directions like a hand in a clock. And
what's moving it along there is the change in position vector over time, which are these velocity
vectors. Over here, the velocity vectors are moving around like the hands of a clock. And what is
doing the moving around are these acceleration vectors. And over here, the velocity vectors are
tangential to the path, which is a circle. They're perpendicular to a radius. And you learned that in
geometry-- that a line that is tangent to a circle is perpendicular to a radius. And it's also going to be
the same thing right over here. And just going back to what we learned when we learned about the
intuition of centripetal acceleration, if you look at a1 right over here, and you translate this vector,
it'll be going just like that. It is going towards the center. a2, once again, is going towards the center.
a3, once again, if you translate that, that is going towards the center. So all of these are actually
center-seeking vectors. And you see that right over here. These are actually centripetal acceleration
vectors right over here. Here we're talking about just the magnitude of it. And we're going to assume
that all of these have the same magnitude. So we're going to assume that they all have a magnitude
of what we'll call a sub c. So that's the magnitude. And it's equal to the magnitude of a1. That vector,
it's equal to the magnitude of a2. And it's equal to the magnitude of a3. Now what I want to think
about is how long is it going to take for this thing to get from this point on the circle to that point on
that circle right over there? So the way to think about it is, what's the length of the arc that it
traveled? The length of this arc that it traveled right over there. That's 1/4 around the circle. It's
going to be 1/4 of the circumference. The circumference is 2 pi r. It Is going to be 1/4 of that. So that
is the length of the arc. And then how long will it take it to go that? Well, you would divide the
length of your path divided by the actual speed, the actual thing that's nudging it along that path. So
you want to divide that by the magnitude of your velocity, or your speed. This is the magnitude of
velocity, not velocity. This is not a vector right over here, this is a scalar. So this is going to be the
time to travel along that path. Now the time to travel along this path is going to be the exact same
amount of time it takes to travel along this path for the velocity vector. So this is for the position
vector to travel like that. This is for the velocity vector to travel like that. So it's going to be the exact
same T. And what is the length of this path? And now think of it in the purely geometrical sense.
We're looking at a circle here. The radius of the circle is v. So the length of this path right over here is
going to be 1/4. It is going to be-- I'll do it in that same color so you see the analogy-- it's equal to 1/4
times the circumference of the circle. The circumference of this circle is 2 pi times the radius of the
circle, which is v. Now what is nudging it along this circle? What is nudging it along this path? What is
the analogy for speed right over here? Speed is what's nudging it along the path over here. It is the
magnitude of the velocity vector. So what's nudging it along this arc right over here is the magnitude
of the acceleration vector. So it is going to be a sub c. And these times are going to be the exact
same thing. The amount of time it takes for this vector to go like that, for the position vector, is the
same amount of time it takes the velocity vector to go like that. So we can set these 2 things equal
each other. So we get, on this side, we get 1/4 2 pi r over v is equal to 1/4 2 pi v over the magnitude
of our acceleration vector. And now we can simplify it a little bit. We can divide both sides by 1/4.
Get rid of that. We can divide both sides by 2 pi, get rid of that. Let me rewrite it. So then we get r/v
is equal to v over the centripetal acceleration. And now you can cross multiply. And so you get v
times v. So I'm just cross multiplying right over here. v times v, you get v squared, is equal to a c
times r. And cross multiplying, remember, is really just the same thing as multiplying both sides by
both denominators, by multiplying both sides times v and ac. So it's not some magical thing. If you
multiply both sides times v and ac, these v's cancel out. These ac's cancel out. You get v times v is v
squared, is equal to a sub c times r. And now to solve for the magnitude of our centripetal
acceleration, you just divide both sides by r. And you are left with-- and I guess we've earned a drum
roll now-- the magnitude of our centripetal acceleration is equal to the magnitude, our constant
magnitude of our velocity. So this right here is our speed, divided by the radius of the circle. And
we're done!