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Episode 223: Preparation for Circular Motion Topic

These resources, produced by the Institute of Physics, look at circular motion, which is frequently observed in nature. Once students have a grasp of the mechanics of linear motion in one or two dimensions, it is a natural extension to consider circular motion.

There are two learning episodes in this topic:

Episode 224: Describing circular motion

Episode 225: Quantitative circular motion

Upon completion of this topic, students should be able to:

1. describe qualitatively motion in a curved path due to a perpendicular force, and understand the centripetal acceleration in the case of uniform motion in a circle

2. express angular displacement in radians

3. recall and use centripetal acceleration a = v2 /r

4. apply the equation F = ma to uniform motion in a circle to derive F = mv2/r.

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