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Physics LibreTexts

9.1: Introduction Newton’s Second Law and Circular Motion

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I shall now recall to mind that the motion of the heavenly bodies is circular, since the motion appropriate to a sphere is rotation in a circle.

Nicholas Copernicus

We have already shown that when an object moves in a circular orbit of radius r with angular velocity ω it is most convenient to choose polar coordinates to describe the position, velocity and acceleration vectors. In particular, the acceleration vector is given by

a(t)=r(dθdt)2ˆr(t)+rd2θdt2ˆθ(t)

Then Newton’s Second Law, F=ma can be decomposed into radial (ˆr) and tangential (ˆθ) components

Fr=mr(dθdt)2( circular motion )

Fθ=mrd2θdt2( circular motion )

For the special case of uniform circular motion, d2θ/dt2=0, and so the sum of the tangential components of the force acting on the object must therefore be zero,

Fθ=0


This page titled 9.1: Introduction Newton’s Second Law and Circular Motion is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Peter Dourmashkin (MIT OpenCourseWare) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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