Question

what is centripetal acceleration ?

Answer 1

In a circular motion there are different forces acting on a body that is in a circular motion, this centripetal acceleration is the force that acts towards the center of the circular motion path.

Answer 2

this reference might help explain it to you: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/cf.html

Answer 3

Yeah, the centripetal force is what pulls the mass into the centre of the arc about which it is rotating - a car going around a traffic circle, for example, is kept going around the circle by centripetal acceleration. It is always perpendicular to the instantaneous direction of velocity, towards the centre of the circle. I'm sure you're at least semi-familiar with vectors and velocity, a vector quantity; if either the direction or magnitude of velocity changes, then it means it is undergoing acceleration. When something rotates around a point, it might maintain the seem speed (or magnitude of velocity), but the direction is changing and thus the velocity is changing, so acceleration is occurring. This is centripetal acceleration.

Assuming the mass maintains a constant speed, then the only acceleration it experiences is centripetal acceleration. However if it changes speed whilst also changing direction, then it also experiences tangential acceleration, in the instantaneous direction of velocity (i.e. perpendicular to the centripetal acceleration).

Answer 4

\[a _{c}=v ^{2}/r\]

Answer 5

in the circular motion the velocity is always the same but why there is an acceleration?
the answer to this question is that the direction of v is changing all the times as a result there must be acceleration due to velocity direction changing...this a is always toward the center and it can be calculated by the following equation:
1)\[a=v^2/R\]
2)\[a=\omega^2*R\]

Answer 6

don't forget though that even if you usually see physics question on circular motion having a constant scalar quantity for velocity, it too can be changing to contribute to the delta v causing the acceleration.