KHALIFA ISYAKU RABIU

UNIVERSITY, KANO

Mechanics
Lecture 7:
Circular Motion
By
Prof. G.S.M. Galadanci

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 Aims of today’s lecture

1. Circular Motion
2. Angular Position
3. Angular Velocity
4. Centripetal Acceleration
5. Centripetal Force
6. Applications of Circular Motion

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Types of Motion

Periodic
(or oscillatory motion)

• Our focus for this

course.

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1. Circular Motion

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 Circular Motion

• Consider the above object moving in a circle.

Q. What type of language can we use to describe this circular motion?
A. Clearly, the object has a type of velocity (called a tangential velocity),
but what else can we say about the motion? 5
 Uniform Circular Motion

• Well, if the object has a constant tangential velocity, we can say that
circular motion is uniform.
• We can also say that the time interval to complete one revolution,
called the period, is fixed. 6
 Uniform Circular Motion

• The relationship between the period, , and the tangential

speed, , is:
1 circumference 2 𝜋 𝑟
𝑣= =
1 period 𝑇 7
 Uniform Circular Motion

• If we superimpose a Cartesian grid on the circle, we can

specify what we call the object’s angular position; let’s
consider this idea in more detail.
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2. Angular Position

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 Angular Position

• Consider an object/particle at a distance from the origin, at an

angle from the positive -axis.
• The angle may be measured in degrees, revolutions (rev) or
radians(rad), that are related by:

1 𝑟𝑒𝑣=360 °=2 𝜋 𝑟𝑎𝑑 10

 Radians

N.B. Because the length of the circumference of a circle is , dividing

this length by , gives us , which means that there are radians in a
circle.

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 Angular Position

• Thus, if the angle is measured in radians, we can describe the

angular position of the object, using the relationship below.

• We can then go one step further, and describe the velocity of the
object, referred to as angular velocity, because the object is moving in
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a circle; let’s now consider this idea in more detail.
3. Angular Velocity

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 Angular Velocity

• A particle on a circular path moves through an angular displacementin

a time interval .
• Similar to linear motion, we can define average angular velocity:
∆𝜃
𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑟 𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 =
∆𝑡 14
 Angular Velocity

• As the time interval becomes very small, we arrive at the definition

of instantaneousangular velocity.

∆ 𝜃 𝑑𝜃
𝜔= lim = (angular velocity)
∆𝑡→0 ∆ 𝑡 𝑑𝑡
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 Angular Velocity

∆ 𝜃 𝑑𝜃
𝜔= lim =
∆𝑡→0 ∆ 𝑡 𝑑𝑡

• Angular velocity,,is the rate at which an object’s angular position is

changing.
• can be positive (when the object moves counterclockwise) or
negative (when the object moves clockwise), following from our
definition of .
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 Have a Think: Determining Revolutions from a Graph of
Angular Velocity vs Time – Another Case of Using an Integral

Q.1 This is the angular velocity graph of a wheel. How many

revolutions does the wheel make in the first 4 s?

a) 1
b) 2
c) 4
d) 6
e) 8

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 Uniform Circular Motion

• The figure to the right shows a motion

diagram for a Ferris wheel.
• It has constant speed, but not constant
velocity (because its direction is
changing), so it is accelerating.
• We can choose a point on the wheel to
track.
• For every pair of adjacent velocity
vectors, we can subtract them to find
the average acceleration near that
point; we call this acceleration
centripetal acceleration.

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4. Centripetal Acceleration

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 Centripetal Acceleration

• In uniform circular motion, although the speed is constant,

there is an acceleration because the direction of the velocity
vector is always changing.
• The acceleration of uniform circular motion is called
centripetal acceleration. 20
Acceleration

• At every point, the acceleration points toward the centre of the circle.
• This is an acceleration due to changing direction, not to changing
speed. 21
 Centripetal Acceleration

• The velocity vector for uniform circular motion is always tangent to

the circle.
• In other words, the velocity vector has only a tangential component,
which we can call . 22
 Centripetal Acceleration

• The tangential velocity component is the rate at which the particle

moves around the circle, where is the arc length measured from the
positive -axis.
• The arc length is 23
 Centripetal Acceleration

• The arc length is

• Taking the derivative, we find
𝑑𝑠 𝑟𝑑 𝜃
𝑣𝑡= =
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡 24
 Centripetal Acceleration

𝑑𝑠 𝑟𝑑 𝜃
𝑣𝑡= =
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡

• is the angular velocity . Thus, the tangential velocity and the angular
velocity are related by
𝑟𝑎𝑑
𝑣 𝑡 =𝜔 𝑟 ( 𝑤𝑖𝑡h 𝜔 𝑖𝑛 )
𝑠
• The tangential velocity is positive for counterclockwise (ccw) motion,
while it is negative for clockwise motion (cw). 25
 Centripetal Acceleration

• The figure shows the velocity i at one instant and the

velocity f an infinitesimal amount of time later.
• During this small interval of time, the particle has moved through
the infinitesimal angle and traveled distance .
 Centripetal Acceleration

• By definition, = d/.
• We can see from the figure that points toward the centre of the
circle, that is, is a centripetal acceleration.
• To find the magnitude of , we can see from the isosceles triangle
of velocity vectors that, if is in radians,

𝑑𝑣=|𝑑 ⃗𝑣|=𝑣𝑑 𝜃
 Centripetal Acceleration

𝑑𝑣=|𝑑 ⃗𝑣|=𝑣𝑑 𝜃

• For uniform circular motion at constant speed,

𝑑𝑠 𝑟𝑑 𝜃
𝑣= =
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡
• Thus, the change in time to rotate through angle is
𝑟𝑑 𝜃
𝑑𝑡=
𝑣
 Centripetal Acceleration

• Thus,
|𝑑 ⃗𝑣| 𝑣𝑑 𝜃 𝑣
2
𝑎=|𝑎
⃗|= = =
dt 𝑟𝑑 𝜃 / 𝑣 𝑟
• In vector notation, we can write the above as . . .
 Centripetal Acceleration

which can be written in terms of angular velocity as: .

• We can merge the idea of centripetal acceleration with our understanding
of Newton’s 2nd law to give us the idea of centripetal force.
5. Centripetal Force

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 Centripetal Force

2
𝑣
𝐹 𝑛𝑒𝑡 =𝑚
𝑅

• Building on the idea of centripetal acceleration, we can see that the

object’s acceleration toward the centre of the circle must be caused by
a force, or several forces, such that their vector sum is a vector that is
always directed toward the centre, with constant magnitude.

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 Centripetal Force

N.B.
When a particle moves in a circular path with constant speed (or uniform
circular motion), there is no component of acceleration parallel to its
instantaneous velocity; otherwise the particle’s speed would change.
Let’s now look at some applications of circular motion.
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6. Applications of Circular Motion

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 A Centrifuge

• Centrifuges are used to separate materials.

• Test tubes held in the centrifuge rotor are accelerated to very high
rotational speeds.
• The small green dot represents a small particle, in a fluid-filled test
tube.
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 A Centrifuge

• At position A, the particle has a tendency to move in a straight line,

but the fluid resists the motion of the particles, exerting a centripetal
force that keeps the particles moving nearly in a circle.

• The resistive force exerted by the fluid usually does not quite equal ,
and the particle moves slowly toward the bottom of the tube.
• Let’s look at another interesting application, that of the rollercoaster.
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 A Rollercoaster

Dragon Khan, Port Aventura

Q. Why doesn’t the rollercoaster fall off the tracks when doing a
loop-the-loop?
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 A Loop-the-Loop

• The figure shows a roller-coaster going around a vertical loop-the-

loop of radius .
• Note that this is not uniform circular motion: the car slows down
going up one side, and speeds up going down the other.
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 A Loop-the-Loop

• However, at the very top and very bottom points, only the car’s
direction is changing, so the acceleration is purely centripetal.
• Thus, because the car is moving in a circle at these points, there must
be a net force toward the centre of the circle.
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 A Loop-the-Loop

• The figure shows the roller-coaster free-body diagram at the

bottomof the loop.
• Since the net force is toward the centre (upward at this point), .

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 A Loop-the-Loop

• This is why you ‘feel slightly more heavy’ at the bottom of the valley
on a roller coaster.
𝑚(𝑣 𝑏𝑜𝑡 )2
∑ 𝐹 𝑟 =𝑛𝑟 +(𝐹 𝐺)𝑟 =𝑛 − 𝑚𝑔=𝑚 𝑎𝑟 = 𝑟
2
𝑚(𝑣 𝑏𝑜𝑡 )
⇒ 𝑛=𝑚𝑔 +
𝑟 41
 A Loop-the-Loop

• The figure shows the roller-coaster free-body diagram at the top of the
loop.
• Now, the normal force acts downward.
• The car is still moving in a circle, so the net force is also downward:
2
𝑚(𝑣 𝑡𝑜𝑝 )
∑ 𝐹 𝑟 =𝑛𝑟 +(𝐹 𝐺)𝑟 =𝑛 +𝑚𝑔= 𝑟
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 A Loop-the-Loop

• This is why you ‘feel slightly lighter’ at the top of a loop-the-loop.

2
𝑚(𝑣 𝑡𝑜𝑝 )
∑ 𝐹 𝑟 =𝑛𝑟 +(𝐹 𝐺)𝑟 =𝑛 +𝑚𝑔= 𝑟
2
𝑚(𝑣 𝑡𝑜𝑝 )
⇒ 𝑛= −𝑚𝑔
𝑟 43
 A Loop-the-Loop

2
𝑚(𝑣 𝑡𝑜𝑝 )
⇒ 𝑛= −𝑚𝑔
𝑟
• As decreases, there comes a point when reaches zero.
• The speed at which is the minimum speed you must travel at to
avoid falling off:
𝑣 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚=
√ 𝑟𝑚𝑔
𝑚
= √ 𝑟𝑔
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A Loop-the-Loop

• Obviously, when designing your

rollercoaster, you should plan for it
to travel a bit faster than this
minimum speed.
• Health and safety is important .

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 Summary of today’s Lecture

1. Circular Motion
2. Angular Position
3. Angular Velocity
4. Centripetal Acceleration
5. Centripetal Force
6. Applications of Circular Motion

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 Home Work

Do not forget to read the Additional Problems for

this lecture before logging in to Mastering Physics
to complete your assignments.

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