Question

Acceleration is change of directions as well, let’s assume an object is travelling at 10 mph north, and turned west by the same speed of 10 mph to west and kept going that way. What would be the acceleration? As this is L shaped movement, I don’t think we could use angular acceleration formula to find the acerbation, how could you address this?

Answer 1

Acceleration includes changes in velocity's magnitude or direction. An L-shaped turn at a constant speed represents a directional change, resulting in centripetal acceleration. This acceleration can be calculated with velocity and time involved in the turn.

Step-by-step explanation:

Acceleration is defined as a change in velocity, which can be a change in its magnitude, its direction, or both. Turning an object from a constant velocity in one direction to the same velocity in a perpendicular direction, as seen in an L-shaped movement, represents a change in direction and thus an acceleration.

However, since the magnitude of the velocity remains the same (10 mph), we are not concerned with tangential acceleration, but rather with the change in direction.

The acceleration in this case is what we call centripetal acceleration (ac), which points 'toward the center' of the circular path that the change in direction implies. This acceleration is not related to an increase or decrease in speed but to the change in direction only.

To calculate this acceleration, you can use the following equation, which considers the velocity (v) before and after the turn and the time (t) taken to make the turn: ac = ∆v / t.