Moving in Circle

I was impressed to see how enthusiastically the class took on Friday's challenge to determine the mass of a retort stand using a known mass and the principles of equilibrium. Well done class!

This week our topic is circular motion. For me this topic starts to explain why we began the year going on so much about the quantity velocity having two components, magnitude and direction. All the circular motion problems we will consider involve the magnitude of the velocity remaining constant but as the objects are moving in a circle the direction of the movement is continually changing.

This means the velocity is constantly changing and as acceleration is the rate of change of velocity the object will be accelerating.