Question

A bicyclist of mass 90 kg drives around a circle with a centripetal acceleration of 1.5 m/s2. What is the centripetal force acting on the bicyclist

Answer 1

How do you generate a force? One way is to accelerate a mass. It seems you have that. Centripetal force is given by this equation:\[F _{c}=\frac{ mv ^{2} }{ r }\], where m is mass, v is tangential velocity, and r is the radius of the circular motion. As it happens centripetal acceleration is given by this equation:\[a _{c}=\frac{ v ^{2} }{ r }\]

Answer 2

Isn't it like F=ma in linear motion, but with different symbols?