Question

uniform circular motion

purpose:
the purpose of this activity is to explore the characteristics of the motion of an object in a circle at a constant speed.

procedure and questions:

1. navigate to the uniform circular motion interactive in the physics interactives section of the physics classroom website. experiment with the on-screen buttons in order to gain familiarity with the control of the animation. the object speed, radius of the circle, and object mass can be varied using the sliders or the buttons. the vector nature of velocity and acceleration can be displayed on the screen. a trace of the object’s motion is shown. the acceleration of and the net force values are displayed in the animation window. the animation can be started, paused, continued or rewound.

after gaining familiarity with the program, use it to answer the following questions.

1. velocity is a vector quantity which has both magnitude and direction. using complete sentences, describe the object’s velocity. comment on both the magnitude and the direction.

1. true or false?

if an object moves in a circle at a constant speed, its velocity vector will be constant.
explain your answer.

Explanation:

Question 2

In uniform circular motion, the object's speed (magnitude of velocity) remains constant as per the activity's context (constant speed). The direction of velocity is tangential to the circular path at any point, meaning it's perpendicular to the radius at that point and changes continuously as the object moves along the circle.

Velocity is a vector with magnitude and direction. In uniform circular motion, though speed (magnitude) is constant, the direction (tangential) changes at every point. A vector is constant only if both magnitude and direction are constant. Since direction changes, velocity vector isn't constant.

Answer:

The magnitude of the object's velocity (its speed) remains constant during uniform circular motion. The direction of the object's velocity is tangential to the circular path it follows at any given instant; this direction continuously changes as the object moves around the circle, always being perpendicular to the radius of the circle at the object's current position.

Question 3