Centripetal Acceleration
The centripetal acceleration of an object can be derived if we look at the situation to the right. An object of speed v makes an angular displacement of ∆θ in time ∆t.
If we look at the triangle at the far right we can use when θ is small. This becomes:
We can rearrange this to give:
Acceleration is given by substitute the above equation into this one
this is the same as
In lesson 3 (Circular Motion) we established that, substitute this into the equation above
If we use we can derive two more equations for acceleration
Centripetal Acceleration is measured in metres per second squared, m/s2 or m s-2