Question
Question: What will happen to speed, velocity and acceleration when an object moves in a circle with uniform s...
What will happen to speed, velocity and acceleration when an object moves in a circle with uniform speed?
Solution
Hint
We should know the difference between the speed and velocity and also the relation between the acceleration and the velocity to answer the change in speed, velocity and the acceleration. Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity. As velocity is a vector quantity. If change in velocity occurs either in direction or in numeric value, acceleration is present there.
Complete step by step answer
Speed: Speed describes how fast an object moves. Speed is defined as the magnitude of change of distance. Speed is a scalar quantity. It has only magnitude.
Velocity: The velocity of an object is defined as the change of rate of its position with respect to time and direction. Velocity is a vector quantity. It has both magnitude and direction i.e. the velocity is affected by the direction.
Acceleration: Acceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity with respect to time.
The object is in uniform speed. As the question states speed remains constant. The object moves with uniform speed in a circle which means the direction of velocity changes constantly. Velocity has both magnitude and direction. The direction changes constantly so velocity varies at every point in the circular path. Whereas, in case of acceleration, moving in a circle does not change the acceleration. The magnitude and direction is constant for acceleration.
The constant change in the direction slows down the velocity. If the velocity slows down then the acceleration also slows down. Since the object moves in a circular path it experiences centripetal force.
Centripetal force is the force that acts on an object that moves in a circular path. If an object experiences centripetal force then the object moves towards the centre.
Note
The object changes its direction constantly so the velocity slows down and so the acceleration. The centripetal force does not get enough acceleration so the object may not completely move into the centre.