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Lesson 7 · Around the bend
Turning is accelerating
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Turning is accelerating

A car at a steady 20 m/s around a bend is accelerating, and this is not a trick of wording. Velocity carries a direction; change the direction and you have changed the velocity, whatever the speedometer says. The change points at the centre of the circle, and its size is ac=v2ra_c = \dfrac{v^2}{r} — a-c equals v squared over r — where aca_c is the centripetal acceleration in m/s2\mathrm{m/s^2}, vv is the speed along the circle in m/s, and rr is the radius in metres, measured to the CENTRE of the turn. Multiply by the mass and you have the force that must be supplied: Fc=mv2rF_c = \dfrac{mv^2}{r}, in newtons.

Say the next part out loud, because it is where the marks are: centripetal force is not a new force. It is a JOB, and some ordinary force has to take it — friction on a flat road, the track's normal force on a banked one, tension in a string, gravity for a satellite. Nothing pushes outward. The shove you feel against the car door is your own inertia going straight while the door turns into you.

Two standard designs follow. On a FLAT curve friction does the whole job, and friction has a ceiling: set μsmg=mv2r\mu_s mg = \dfrac{mv^2}{r}, cancel the mass, and the top speed is vmax⁡=μsgrv_{\max} = \sqrt{\mu_s g r} — a property of the road and the weather, identical for a loaded truck and an empty hatchback. On a BANKED curve the track is tilted so its own perpendicular push leans inward, and the angle that does it with no friction at all is θ=tan⁡−1 ⁣(v2rg)\theta = \tan^{-1}\!\left(\dfrac{v^2}{rg}\right), in degrees, for one chosen design speed.

And keep one number in view above all others: the v2v^2. Double the speed and the demand does not double, it QUADRUPLES. That single exponent is why highway curves carry advisory speeds, why the last 10 km/h costs more grip than the first fifty, and why wet asphalt rewrites the arithmetic before you have finished reading the sign.

rmvFc

Fc=mv2rF_c = \frac{m v^2}{r}

  • FcF_c= Centripetal force (force)
  • mm= Mass (mass)
  • vv= Speed (speed)
  • rr= Radius (length)
Centripetal Force (F = mv²/r) solver →
rvac

ac=v2ra_c = \frac{v^2}{r}

  • aca_c= Centripetal acceleration (acceleration)
  • vv= Speed (speed)
  • rr= Radius (length)
Centripetal Acceleration (a = v²/r) solver →
vmaxrμs

vmax⁡=μsgrv_{\max} = \sqrt{\mu_s g r}

  • vmax⁡v_{\max}= Maximum speed (speed)
  • μs\mu_s= Coefficient of static friction
  • rr= Curve radius (length)
Maximum Speed on a Flat Curve solver →
θrv

θ=arctan⁡ ⁣(v2rg)\theta = \arctan\!\left(\frac{v^{2}}{r g}\right)

  • θ\theta= Bank angle (angle)
  • vv= Design speed (speed)
  • rr= Curve radius (length)
Banked Curve Angle solver →