Final answer:
When driving around a curve, a car may give the sensation of being pushed to one side due to centrifugal force, especially if the curve isn't ideally banked for the speed. The perceived force is actually centripetal acceleration directed towards the center of the curve. At high speeds and on sharp turns, this force is amplified, making the effect more pronounced.
Step-by-step explanation:
When driving around a curve, your car might tend to experience what you perceive as being thrown to either side. If the curve is ideally banked for your car's speed, you will feel this effect minimally because the forces are balanced. The force exerted on you by the car seat is directed towards the center of the curve, which is a result of centripetal acceleration. During uniform circular motion, where you hold the steering wheel steady and maintain constant speed, you might feel a sensation of sliding away from the turn's center. This sensation is due to a fictitious force called the centrifugal force, which occurs because your body tends to maintain its straight-line path while the car is turning.
If a car rounds a curve and encounters a patch of ice, lowering the coefficient of kinetic friction, the car may slide off the road, following a path tangent to the turn at that point, which is evident when a car cannot maintain traction.
Centripetal acceleration becomes significantly greater with increased speed and upon taking sharper curves. At high speeds or on sharp turns, the car pushes you more noticeably toward the turn's center due to this acceleration squared relationship with speed. Therefore, the faster you go or the sharper the turn, the greater the centripetal force required to keep the car on the path.