Tutoring Physics, Centripetal Acceleration

We looked at problems involving centripetal acceleration, movement in circular paths.

The new equation we used was that a(centripetal) = v^2/r

Looked at three problems. Also had to convert units a few times to SI units for the calculations to work.

One problem involved a person on a bike, another an object on a string, and the third an approximation of the Earth’s orbit as a circle in which we had to think about the period of rotation as being a year.

You can approximate the number of seconds in a year as being pi multiplied by 10^7. To be more accurate, you should account for leap year, making there be 365.25 days in a year.