File 68244
File 68244
File 68244
motion
Learning outcomes
Misconceptions
• Common sense suggests there is an outward (centrifugal) force.
• Students often get the impression that ‘centripetal force’ is a
new force, when the term simply describes the direction of
existing forces.
Teaching challenges
• Convincing students that something travelling at a constant
speed is accelerating.
• Introducing the radian as a measurement unit for angles.
• Analysis of the motion of moons and planets needs the
mm
relationship F G 1 2 2 but this may not have been taught.
r
Newton’s conceptual leap
To be followed by:
PP demo experiment Introducing circular motion
Examples
• conker on a string
• clothes in a spin drier
• blood sample in a centrifuge
• child on a playground roundabout
• car, bus or train going round a corner
• Olympic sport ‘throwing the hammer’
• cycle racing on an indoor track
Discuss, in pairs
In each case, what force keeps the object moving in a circle?
A video clip
Bowling ball and mallet
Discuss, in pairs
What does this video demonstrate about force and motion?
How does it relate to this diagram of a planetary orbit, from
Newton’s Principia?
Vector analysis 1:
acceleration of a falling object
Straight line motion is easy
Vector analysis 2: acceleration &
velocity in different directions
v 2
Magnitude a
r
and so force mv 2
F ma
r
Experimental test of F = mv²/r
Measure
• tension, F
• bung mass m
• radius r
• periodic time, T
a r 2
r r r
F ma mr 2
DRG?
Vector analysis shows how the forces acting (weight, central force
such as tension) combine differently as the object circles round.
More free body force diagrams
conical pendulum
This represents part of a circular orbit for a satellite at an altitude of 200 km.
If for each planet you take an average radius, R, and time interval
the planet takes to go once round its orbit (its year), T, then the
ratio R3/T2 is the same for all planets.
Law of gravitation
mm
F G 1 2
r
g 2