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Can a particle with constant speed be accelarating?
what if it has constant velocity?​

User Ddelizia
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2 Answers

10 votes
10 votes

Final answer:

A particle with constant speed can be accelerating if its direction changes. A particle with constant velocity has zero acceleration.

Step-by-step explanation:

A particle with constant speed can be accelerating. Acceleration refers to a change in velocity, which includes both speed and direction. A particle with constant speed can be accelerating if its direction changes, even though its speed remains the same. For example, an object moving in a circular path at a constant speed is constantly changing direction and therefore experiencing acceleration.

If a particle has constant velocity, it means that both its speed and direction are constant. In this case, the acceleration would be zero since there is no change in velocity. If an object's velocity is constant, it means it is neither speeding up nor slowing down, and there is no acceleration.

User Robert Wagstaff
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3.2k points
25 votes
25 votes

Step-by-step explanation:

it can be safely concluded that an object moving in a circle at constant speed is indeed accelerating. It is accelerating because the direction of the velocity vector is changing.

When an object is moving with constant velocity, it does not change direction nor speed and therefore is represented as a straight line when graphed as distance over time.

User Feng Jiang
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3.0k points