Acceleration

Acceleration is the time rate of change of velocity, and at any point on a v-t graph, it is
given by the slope of the tangent to that point
In physics or physical science, acceleration (symbol: a) is defined as the rate of change
(or derivative with respect to time) of velocity. It is thus a vector quantity with dimension
length/time. In SI units, acceleration is measured in metres/second.

Explanation
To accelerate an object is to change its velocity (or direction - like in case of uniform
circular motion) in relation to time. In this strict mathematical sense, acceleration can
have positive and negative values respectively called acceleration (increasing velocity)
and deceleration (or retardation decreasing velocity) in common speech as well as
change of direction. Acceleration is a vector defined by properties of magnitude (size or
measurablility) and direction. When either velocity or direction are changed, there is
acceleration (or deceleration).
Acceleration is defined technically as "the rate of change of velocity of an object with
respect to time" and the instantaneous acceleration of an objection is given by the
equation

where
a is the acceleration vector (as acceleration is a vector, it must be described with
both a direction and a magnitude).
v is the velocity
t is time

d is Leibniz's notation for differentiation

When velocity is plotted against time on a velocity vs. time graph, the acceleration is
given by the slope, or the derivative of the graph.
If used with SI standard units (metres per second for velocity; seconds for time) this
equation gives a the units of m/(ss), or m/s (read as "metres per second per second", or
"metres per second squared").
An average acceleration, or acceleration over time, can be defined as:

where
u is the initial velocity (m/s)
v is the final velocity (m/s)
t is the time interval (s) elapsed between the two velocity measurements
Transverse acceleration (perpendicular to velocity) causes change in direction. If it is
constant in magnitude and changing in direction with the velocity, we get a circular
motion. For this centripetal acceleration we have

One common unit of acceleration is g, one g (more specifically, gn or g 0) being the

standard acceleration of free fall or 9.80665 m/s, roughly caused by the gravity of Earth
at sea level at about 45.5 latitude).
Jerk is the rate of change of an object's acceleration over time.
In classical mechanics, acceleration is related to force
constant) by way of Newton's second law:

and mass

(assumed to be

As a result of its invariance under the Galilean transformations, acceleration is an

absolute quantity in classical mechanics.

Relation to relativity
After defining his theory of special relativity, Albert Einstein realized that forces felt by
objects undergoing constant acceleration are indistinguishable from those in a

gravitational field, and thus defined general relativity that also explained how gravity's
effects could be limited by the speed of light.
If you accelerate away from your friend, you could say (given your frame of reference)
that it is your friend who is accelerating away from you, although only you feel any force.
This is also the basis for the popular Twin paradox, which asks why only one twin ages
when moving away from his sibling at near light-speed and then returning, since the
aging twin can say that it is the other twin that was moving. General relativity solved the
"why does only one object feel accelerated?" problem which had plagued philosophers
and scientists since Newton's time (and caused Newton to endorse absolute space). In
special relativity, only inertial frames of reference (non-accelerated frames) can be used
and are equivalent; general relativity considers all frames, even accelerated ones, to be
equivalent. With changing velocity, accelerated objects exist in warped space (as do those
that reside in a gravitational field). Therefore, frames of reference must include a
description of their local spacetime curvature to qualify as complete.
Acceleration can be measured using an accelerometer.

Kinematics
Integrate ... Differentiate
Displacement | Velocity (Speed) | Acceleration | Jerk

Circular motion
In physics, circular motion is rotation along a circle: a circular path or a circular orbit.
The rotation around a fixed axis of a three-dimensional body involves circular motion of
its parts. We can talk about circular motion of an object if we ignore its size, so that we
have the motion of a point mass in a plane.

Constant speed
In the simplest case the speed is constant. It is one of the simplest cases of accelerated
motion.
Circular motion involves acceleration of the moving object by a centripetal force which
pulls the moving object towards the center of the circular orbit. Without this acceleration,
the object would move inertially in a straight line, according to Newton's first law of
motion. Circular motion is accelerated even though the speed is constant, because the
velocity of the moving object is constantly changing.

Examples of circular motion are: an artificial satellite orbiting the Earth in

geosynchronous orbit, a stone which is tied to a rope and is being swung in circles (cf.
hammer throw), a racecar turning through a curve in a racetrack, an electron moving
perpendicular to a uniform magnetic field, a gear turning inside a mechanism.
A special kind of circular motion is when an object rotates around its own center of mass.
This can be called spinning motion, or rotational motion.
Circular motion is characterized by an orbital radius r, a speed v, the mass m of the object
which moves in a circle, and the magnitude F of the centripetal force. These quantities all
relate to each other through the equation

which is always true for circular motion.

Since

, the above equation can be expressed as

Mathematical description
Circular motion can be described by means of parametric equations, viz.

where R and are coefficients. Equations (1) and (2) describe motion around a circle
centered at the origin with radius R. The quantity is the angular velocity, and t is the
time.
The derivatives of these equations are

The vector

is the position vector of the object undergoing the circular motion. The

vector
, given by equations (3) and (4), is the velocity vector of the moving object.
This velocity vector is perpendicular to the position vector, and it is tangent to the
circular path of the moving object. The velocity vector must be considered to have its tail
located at the head of the position vector. The tail of the position vector is located at the
origin.
The derivatives of equations (3) and (4) are

The vector
, called the acceleration vector, is given by equations (5) and (6). It
has its tail at the head of the position vector, but it points in the direction opposite to the
position vector. This means that circular motion can be described by differential
equations, thus

or letting x denote the position vector, then circular motion can be described by a single
vector differential equation

The second order differential equation of the circular motion is

The first order differential equation of the circular motion is

Deriving the centripetal force

From equations (5) and (6) it is evident that the magnitude of the acceleration is

The angular frequency is expressed in terms of the period T as

The speed v around the orbit is given by the circumference divided by the period:

Comparing equations (8) and (9), we deduce that

Solving equation (10) for and substituting into equation (7) yields

Newton's second law of motion is usually expressed as

which together with equation (11) implies that

(QED).

Kepler's third law

For satellites tethered to a body of mass M at the origin by means of a gravitational force,
the centripetal force is also equal to

where G is the gravitational constant, 6.671011 Nm2kg2. Combining equations (12) and
(13) yields

which simplifies to

Combining equations (14) and (10) then yields

which is a form of Kepler's harmonic law of planetary motion.

Variable speed

In the general case, circular motion requires that the total force can be decomposed into
the centripetal force required to keep the orbit circular, and a force tangent to the circle,
causing a change of speed.
The magnitude of the centripetal force depends on the instantaneous speed.
In the case of an object at the end of a rope, subjected to a force, we can decompose the
force into a radial and a lateral component. If the radial component is either outward, or
inward but not more In physics, circular motion is rotation along a circle: a circular path
or a circular orbit. The rotation around a fixed axis of a three-dimensional body involves
circular motion of its parts. We can talk about circular motion of an object if we ignore its
size, so that we have the motion of a point mass in a plane.

Centripetal force
The centripetal force is the force needed to move an object in a circle at constant speed.
Hence it is a force requirement, not a physical force in its own right. Any physical force
(gravity, electrostatics, tension, friction, etc.) can be used to supply the centripetal force.
The term centripetal force comes from the Latin words centrum ("center") and petere
("tend towards").

Basic idea
Objects moving in a straight line with constant speed have constant velocity and require
no force to do so, since they experience no acceleration. However, an object moving in a
circle at constant speed has a changing direction of motion. Since velocity is a vector
with both speed and direction, a changing direction implies a changing velocity. The rate
of this change in velocity is the centripetal acceleration.
The centripetal acceleration varies with the radius r of the circle and speed v, becoming
larger for higher speed and smaller radius. More precisely, the centripetal acceleration is
given by

where = v / r is the angular velocity. The direction of this acceleration is towards the
center of the circle, i.e., opposite to the position vector . (We assume that the origin of
is the center of the circle.)
By Newton's second law of motion F = ma, a physical force F must be applied to a mass
m to produce this acceleration. The amount of force needed to move at speed v on a circle
of radius r is exactly

where the formula has been written in several equivalent ways; here, is the unit vector
in the direction and is the angular velocity vector. If the applied force is less or more
than Fc, the object will "slip outwards" or "slip inwards", moving on a larger or smaller
circle, respectively.
If an object is traveling in a circle with a varying speed, its acceleration can be divided
into two components, a radial acceleration (the centripetal acceleration that changes the
direction of the velocity) and a tangential acceleration that changes the speed of the
velocity.

Examples
For an orbiting satellite, the centripetal force is supplied by the gravitational attraction
between the satellite and its primary, and acts toward the center of mass which lies in the
satellite's primary. For an object at the end of a rope rotating about a vertical axis, the
centripetal force is the horizontal component of the tension of the rope which acts
towards the axis of rotation. For a spinning object, internal tensile stress gives the
centripetal force that holds the object together in one piece.

Common misunderstandings
Centripetal force should not be confused with centrifugal force. The centrifugal force is a
fictitious force that arises from being in a rotating reference frame. To eliminate all such
fictitious forces, one needs to be in a non-accelerating reference frame, i.e., in an inertial
reference frame. Only then can one safely use Newton's laws of motion, such as F = ma.
Centripetal force should not be confused with central force, either. Central forces are a
class of physical forces between two objects that meet two conditions: (1) their
magnitude depends only on the distance between the two objects and (2) their direction
points along the line connecting the two objects. Examples of central forces include the
gravitational force between two masses and the electrostatic force between two charges.
Central forces are physical forces, whereas the centripetal force is not. However, central
forces are often used to meet the centripetal force requirement.

Derivation using calculus

One derivation strategy is to use a polar coordinate system, assume a constant radius, and
differentiate twice.
Let r(t) be a vector that describes the position of a point mass as a function of time. Since
we are assuming uniform circular motion, let r(t) = Rur, where R is a constant (the radius

of the circle) and ur is the unit vector pointing from the origin to the point mass. In terms
of Cartesian unit vectors:

Note: unlike in cartesian coordinates where the unit vectors are constants, in polar
coordinates the direction of the unit vectors depend on the angle between the x_axis and
the point being described; the angle .
So we differentiate to find velocity:

where is the angular velocity (just a short way of writing d/dt), u is the unit vector
that is perpendicular to ur that points in the direction of increasing . In cartesian terms:
u = -sin() ux + cos() uy
This result for the velocity is good because it matches our expectation that the velocity
should be directed around the circle, and that the magnitude of the velocity should be R.
Differentiating again, we find that the acceleration, a is:

Thus, the radial component of the acceleration is:

Geometric derivation (without calculus)

Figure 1: The position and velocity vectors both move in a circle.

The circle on the left in Figure 1 shows an object moving on a circle at constant speed at
four different times in its orbit. Its position is given by
and its velocity is .
The velocity vector is always perpendicular to the position vector (since the velocity
vector is always tangent to the circle); thus, since
moves in a circle, so does .
The circular motion of the velocity is shown in the circle on the right of Figure 1, along
with its acceleration . Just as velocity is the rate of change of position, acceleration is
the rate of change of velocity.
Since the position and velocity vectors move in tandem, they go around their circles in
the same time T. That time equals the distance traveled divided by the velocity

and, by analogy,

Setting these two equations equal and solving for a, we get

Comparing the two circles in Figure 1 also shows that the acceleration points towards the
center of the circle. For example, in the left circle in Figure 1, the position vector
pointing at 12 o'clock has a velocity vector pointing at 9 o'clock, which (switching to

the circle on the right) has an acceleration vector pointing at 6 o'clock. So the
acceleration vector is opposite to
and towards the center of the circle.