Sunday, December 12, 2010

My dad always takes me home from school.  Sometimes, when he really wants to make a light he speeds up and makes a sharp and quick turn and now I'll relate it to physics.  During the sharp turn, I feel pushed to the outside of the turn because of centrifugal force.  Centrifugal force is the fake force that we feel on a turn because inertia gives us the tendency to want to continue going straight.  The magnitude of centrifugal force is equal to that of centripetal force so Fc=m*v^2/r or Fc=m*rω^2.  When the turn is sharp, the radius decreases increasing centripetal force.  When the turn is fast velocity increases and this also increases centripetal force.  Because centripetal force is equal to centrifugal force, the sharper and faster the turn, the more your body will be pushed to the outside.


Some pictures of turns