Sunday, June 1, 2014

classical mechanics - Types of circular acceleration?


To my knowledge there are three types of acceleration when a body (e.g. a rod) is moving in a circle about an axis. These are:




  1. Angular acceleration : this is the rate of change of angular velocity.





  2. Tangential acceleration : this is the linear acceleration of the system in a tangential direction to the circle and equals the radius times the angular acceleration.




  3. Radial/centripetal acceleration : this is the linear acceleration of the system that is directed inwards towards the center of the circle.




I also think there are two types of velocity:





  1. Linear velocity: this is its velocity in the tangential direction and is constantly changing




  2. Angular velocity or angular frequency: this is the rate of change of angle.




Is the above correct? And have I missed anything?



Answer



No. Frequency is defined as 2π*θ/t where theta is the angle rotated for a time t. You maybe tempted to equate frequency to angular velocity. But it is not so. Angular velocity = dθ/dt. Angular frequency= 2*pi*(Integral of x over time interval t)/t



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