12 MECHANICS OF FLIGHT Motion on curved paths It has already been emphasised that bodies tend to continue in the same state of motion, and that this involves direction as well as speed. It is clear, there- fore, that if we wish to make a body change its motion by turning a corner or travelling on a curved path, we must apply a force to it in order to make it do so, and that this will apply even if the speed of the body does not change. This is a force exactly similar to the one that is required to accelerate an aircraft, that is to say: the force must be proportional to the mass of the body and to the acceleration which it is desired to produce. But what is the acceleration of a body that is going round a corner? Is there, in fact, any acceleration at all if the speed remains constant? And in what direction is the acceleration? Let us deal with the last question first. There is another part of Newton’s second law which has not so far been mentioned, namely that the rate of change of momentum of the body will be in the direction of the applied force. If the mass of the body does not change as it goes round the corner the accel- eration must be in the direction of the force. But is there any acceleration if the speed does not change? Yes — because velocity is what we call a vector quan- tity, that is to say, it has both magnitude and direction, while speed has only magnitude. Thus if the direction of motion changes, the velocity changes even though the speed remains unaltered. But at what rate does the velocity change? - in other words, what is the acceleration? and in what direction is it? Centripetal force and centripetal acceleration We all know the direction of the force as a result of practical experience. Swing a stone round on the end of a piece of string. In what direction does the string pull on the stone to keep it on its circular path? Why, towards the centre of the circle, of course, and since force and acceleration are in the same direction, the acceleration must also be towards the centre. We know too that the greater the velocity of the stone, and the smaller the radius of the circle on which it travels, the greater is the pull in the string, and therefore the greater the acceleration. The acceleration is actually given by the simple formula v/r, where v is the velocity of the body and r the radius of the circle. The force towards the centre is called centripetal force (centre-secking force), and will be equal to the mass of the body X the centripetal accelera- tion, i.e. to m X w/r (Fig. 1.4). We have made no attempt to prove that the a tion is 1/r — the proof will be found in any textbook on mechanics - but since it is not easy to con- ceive of an acceleration towards the centre as so many metres per second per second when the body never gets any nearer to the centre, it may help if we celerMECHANICS 13 Direction of rolation Centripetal Fig 1.4 Centripetal force translate the algebraic expression into some actual figures. Taking the simple example of a stone on the end of a piece of string, if the stone is whirled round so as to make one revolution per second, and the length of the string is 1 metre, the distance travelled by the stone per second will be 2mr, i.e. 27 X 1 or 6.28 m. Therefore » = 6.28m/s, r= 1m <. acceleration towards centre = 2/r = (6.28 X 6.28)/1 = 39.5 m/s? (approx) Notice that this is nearly four times the acceleration of gravity, or nearly 4g. Since we are only using this example as an illustration of principles, let us sim- plify matters by assuming that the answer is 4g, ie. 39.24 m/s? This means that the velocity of the stone towards the centre is changing at a rate 4 times as great as that of a falling body. Yet it never gets any nearer to the centre! No, but what would have happened to the stone if it had not been attached to the string? It would have obeyed the tendency to go straight on, and in so doing would have departed farther and farther from the centre. What centripetal force will be required to produce this acceleration of 4g? The mass of the stone x 4g. So, if the mass is 1/2 kg, the centripetal force will be 1/2 x 4g = 2 x 9.81 = 19.62, say 20 newtons. Therefore the pull in the string is 20 N in order to give the mass of /2kg an acceleration of 4g. Notice that the force is 20 newtons, the acceleration is 4 g. There is a hor- rible tendency to talk about ‘g’ as if it were a force; it is not, it is an acceleration.14 MECHANICS OF FLIGHT Now this is all very easy provided the centripetal force is the only force acting upon the mass of the stone. However, in reality there must be a force of gravity acting upon it. If the stone is rotating in a horizontal circle its weight will act at right angles to the pull in the string, and so will not affect the centripetal force. But of course a stone cannot rotate in a horizontal circle, with the string also hori- zontal, unless there is something to support it. So let us imagine the mass to be on a table — but it will have to be a smooth, frictionless table or we shall introduce yet more forces. We now have the simple state of affairs illustrated in Fig. 1.5. Now suppose that we rotate the stone in a vertical circle, like an aeroplane looping the loop, the situation is rather different (Fig. 1.6). Even if the stone were not rotating, but just hanging on the end of the string, there would be a tension in the string, due to its weight, and this as near as matters would be very roughly 5 newtons, for a mass of 1/2 kg. If it must rotate with an accel- eration of 4g the string must also provide a centripetal force of 20 newtons. So when the stone is at the bottom of the circle, D, the total pull in the string will be 25 N. When the stone is in the top position, C, its own weight will act towards the centre and this will provide SN, so the string need only pull with an additional 15 N to produce the total of 20 N for the acceleration of 4g. At the side positions, A and B, the weight of the stone acts at right angles to the string and the pull in the string will be 20N To sum up: the pull in the string varies between 15N and 25, but the acceleration is all the time 4g and, of course, the centripetal force is all the time 20N. From the practical point of view, what matters most is the pull in the string, which is obviously most likely to break when the stone is in position D and the tension is at the maximum value of 25 N. To complicate the issue somewhat, suppose the stone rotates in a horizontal circle, but relies on the pull of the string to hold it up (Fig. 1.7), and that the string has been lengthened so that the radius on which the stone is rotating is Direction of rotation 1.5 Stone rotating in a horizontal circle, supported on a tableMECHANICS 15 Direction of rotation Weight 5 N A B Weight ft 4g 1) Weight 5N “15N Fig 1.6 Stone rotating in a vertical circle still 1 metre. The string cannot of course be horizontal since the pull in it must do two things - support the weight of the stone and provide the centripetal force. Here we must introduce a new principle. A force of SN, vertically, is required to support the weight. ‘A force of 20N, horizontally, is required to provide the centripetal force. Now five plus twenty does not always make twenty-five! It does not in this example, and for the simple reason that they are not pulling in the same di tion. We must therefore represent them by vectors (Fig. 1.7), and the diagonal will represent the total force which, by Pythagoras’ Theorem, will be V(20? + 5°) = W425 = 20.6N The tangent of the angle of the string to the vertical will be 20/5 = 4.0. So the angle will be approx 76°. Expressing the angle, 8, in symbols - o- Centripetal force _ x PNW we = (m X r)ling Weight 5 N Weight 5 N 1.7 Stone rotating in a horizontal circle, with string support