Question

What is the value of tangential acceleration in uniform circular motion?

Answer 1

Concepts:

1. The uniform circular motion is defined as the motion of an object or a particle on a circular path with constant speed.
2. In the uniform circular motion, the direction of the body changes at every point, thus, the velocity of the body changes instead of remaining constant.
3. The rate of change of the tangential velocity of an object in a circular motion is known as tangential acceleration. It is always directed towards the tangent to the path of the body.

An illustrative diagram of concepts :

Value of acceleration :

1. The direction of tangent acceleration is toward the tangent.
2. The tangential acceleration is zero for uniform circular motion.
3. In a uniform circular motion, angular velocity remains constant thus tangential acceleration = 0.