Chapter 6: Gravitation and Uniform Circular

Motion
Nathaniel Lowe
October 31, 2022

6.1 Rotation Angle and Angular Velocity

In this chapter, we will now consider the physics of motion of a particle that
travels in a curve. To describe this type of motion, we need to determine our
angular quantities by defining the geometry of rotation.
First, let’s draw a circle of radius r. Let’s imagine that we have some
object traveling along this circle. We have the object starting at the top of
the circle and going clockwise for a certain arbitrary length of time. In that
time, the object will travel a certain distance along the circle which we call
the arc length (∆s). At this point the radius will still be the same since
it travels on the edge of the circle (however, from now on we will call this
the radius of curvature). In this time, the object is said to rotate around
the circle by a certain rotation angle (∆θ). We can define a relationship
between these three quantities as:
∆s
∆θ = (1)
r
Now let’s note a couple things,
- The units of ∆θ is radians.
- 2π radians = 1 revolution (plug in the circumference of a circle into ∆s)
- We can alternate between radians and degrees from:

2π radians = 360◦ (2)

360◦
1 radian = ≈ 57.3◦ (3)
2π
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Finally, here are a couple degrees and radians conversions for easy access:
π
30◦ =
6
π
45◦ =
4
π
60◦ =
3
π
90◦ =
2
2π
120◦ =
3
3π
135◦ =
4
◦
180 = π
Naturally, we want to now find a way to know how fast the object is moving
around the circle (how fast the object is rotating). This is known as the
angular velocity (ω), which we define as:

∆θ
ω= (4)
∆t
In this case ω has units of radians/s (rad/s). We want to make note of how
this is analogous to linear velocity v. In this case, linear velocity is equal to:
∆s
v= (5)
∆t
Recall that:
∆s
∆θ =
r
∆s = r∆θ
Plugging this in, we find:
r∆θ
v= = rω (6)
∆t
Equivalently,
v
ω= (7)
r

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We also refer to the linear velocity as the tangential velocity. For example,
consider the wheel of a car. The tangential velocity at the rim of the tire
(where the tire meets the road) is v and the speed the wheel is spinning is ω.
Keep in mind that v is a vector like normal with a specific direction, and while
ω is also a vector, it only has two directions (clockwise and counterclockwise).
Now that we have defined the two quantities we needed, let’s just look at 2
quick examples.
Example 1:
Consider a car traveling at 20 m/s. What is the angular velocity if the
radius of the wheels are 0.4 m?
Solution:
The linear velocity is the same velocity the car is traveling (v = 20 m/s) and
the radius is 0.4, thus
v 20
ω= = = 50 rad/s (8)
r 0.4

Example 2:
Consider a bead that is traveling around a wire loop of radius 0.2 m. It
travels a distance of 0.3 m around the loop in 3 seconds. What is the angular
velocity of the bead?
Solution:
First, we need to figure out what the rotation angle of the bead is:
∆s 0.3
∆θ = = = 1.5 radians (9)
r 0.2
Now, we need to use the change in angle over the change in time to find
angular velocity.
∆θ 1.5
ω= = = 0.5 rad/s (10)
∆t 3

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6.2 Centripetal Acceleration
While the angular displacement and angular velocity were fairly straight-
forward to understand, acceleration is a little bit trickier. As something
undergoes circular motion, the direction of its velocity is constantly chang-
ing (which is by definition acceleration). This is easy to see by looking at the
tangential velocity as it goes around a circle. If we pick two random points
on the circle and draw the tangent lines, we can then extrapolate them out
to find the direction that the velocity is changing. We find that the change in
velocity is pointing towards the center of the circle, and thus the acceleration
is pointed inward. We call this acceleration the centripetal acceleration
(ac ). (Draw figure 6.8 while discussing this)
So we have determined the direction of the acceleration, but what is the
magnitude of this acceleration? (Draw triangles from figure 6.8)
Let’s compare these two triangles. Since they are both isoscles triangles
and are similar so we can compare their ratios. With v1 = v2 = v, we have:
∆v ∆s
= (11)
v r
Solving for ∆v:
v
∆v = ∆s (12)
r
Let’s divide both sides by ∆t:
∆v v ∆s
= × (13)
∆t r ∆t
∆v ∆s
Since ∆t
= ac and ∆t
= v:
v2
ac = (14)
r
Equivalently, if we substitute v = rω:

ac = rω 2 (15)

Both of these expressions are valid ways of describing the magnitude of cen-
tripetal acceleration, however it may be convenient to use one or the other
based on your givens. Keep in mind that the acceleration going around a
curve is proportional to v 2 and is thus larger for faster speeds and larger for
tighter curves (small r). All of this will be easy to think about if you have

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ever been in a car going around a sharp bend. Now that we have defined the
theory, let’s do two quick examples:
Example 3:
Consider a car traveling at 30 m/s around a curve that has a radius of
800 m. What is the centripetal acceleration? If we are instead told that the
angular velocity is 0.0375 rad/s, what is the centripetal acceleration in this
case?
Solution:
First, we can find the acceleration easily from:
v2 302
ac = = = 1.125 m/s2 (16)
r 800
However, if instead we are given ω = 0.0375 rad/s we instead use:
ac = rω 2 = (800)(0.0375)2 = 1.125 m/s2 (17)
Please note that this is around a tenth the size of the acceleration due to
gravity and is very noticable.
Example 4:
Let’s say we have a ultracentrifuge which is spinning at a speed of 8.2×104
rev/min. We want to find the centripetal acceleration at a point 10 cm from
the center and compare it to the acceleration due to gravity.
Solution:
First off, we want to convert rev/min into a far more useful rad/sec.
rev 2π rad 1 min
ω = 8.2 × 104 × × = 8587 rad/s (18)
min 1 rev 60.0 s
Now we can plug this into the equation like before:
ac = rω 2 = (0.1)(8587)2 = 7.37 × 106 m/s2 (19)
Finally, what is this relative to the acceleration due to gravity?
ac 7.37 × 106
= = 7.5 × 105 (20)
g 9.8
This tells us that the centripetal acceleration in this ultracentrifuge is 750000
times stronger than gravity. This detail is not particularly important for the
AP test, but it is interesting nonetheless.

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6.3 Centripetal Force
While this is a new and different type of force from the ones we’ve talked
about before, but force or combination of forces can cause this centripetal
acceleration. For example, a tether ball on a rope or the friction between
roller skates as a person skates around a bend. We define any force that
causes a uniform circular motion as a centripetal force. The direction of
the centripetal force is towards the center of curvature, which is the same
direction as the acceleration. We can derive a formula for centripetal force
by starting from Newton’s second law:

Fc = mac (21)

Plugging in the two possible values for ac :

v2
Fc = m (22)
r
Fc = mrω 2 (23)
If we rearrange for r:
mv 2
r= (24)
Fc
This shows that the larger the centripetal force, the smaller the radius of
curvature (tighter the bend).
This brings up an interesting question, if we have a car going around a
bend, what is the coefficient of friction do we need between the tires and the
road such that the car doesn’t slip and crash?
Example 5:
Consider a race car that weighs 1200 kg that is going around a curve
with a radius of 600 m at a speed of 40 m/s. First, find the centripetal force
exerted and then find the minimum coefficient of static friction (prevents
slipping).
Solution:
The first part is super easy:

mv 2 1200 ∗ 402
Fc = = = 3200 N (25)
r 600

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The second part is not nearly as easy. We need the frictional force to coun-
terbalance the centripetal force. That means that these sum of these forces
need to be equal to 0.
v2
ΣF = m − µs mg = 0 (26)
r
The minus sign is placed on the frictional force since it is opposing the motion.
v2
m = µs mg (27)
r
Let’s cancel the masses and solve for µs
v2
µs = (28)
rg
Finally, we can solve this using actual numbers:
402
µs = = 0.27 (29)
600 ∗ 9.8
Now, we wish to add in a new complexity: the idea of a banked curve. A
banked curve means that the curve the car would be going around is now at
a angle, similar to a nascar racetrack. Now ideally, we can choose a certain
angle of banking which allows the car to go around the curve at a certain
speed without needing friction. In this situation, we need the components
of the normal force to equal the weight of the car and the centripetal force
seperately. (Draw Figure 6.13) From this diagram we can clearly see how the
horizontal and vertical components of force will cancel out:
mv 2
N sin θ = (30)
r
N cos θ = mg (31)
Using substitution, we can get rid of N from both equations:
sin θ mv 2
mg =
cos θ r
mv 2
mg tan θ =
r
(32)
v2
tan θ =
rg
v2

θ = tan−1
rg

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This is the expression for how much the curve needs to be banked for an
object moving around a curve of radius r at a speed v in the case of no
friction. A large v and small r results in a large θ, which means the road
needs to be steep for a fast and sharp turn in order for the car not to slip.
Friction is helpful in this case because that means we can take the curve at
a faster or slower speed than this without slipping, it doesn’t have to be so
exact.
Example 6:
The Daytona International Speedway has very steeply banked curves in
order to allow drivers to take them at high speeds with little issues (in addi-
tion to obvious help from friction and the way the cars are designed specifi-
cally for this purpose. Let’s find the speed at which a 130 m (radius) curve
which is banked at 70◦ should be driven if we assume there is no friction.
Solution:
Let’s start from the expression above with tan θ still intact:

v2
tan θ = (33)
rg
In this case we don’t need the angle and will instead solve for v:
√
v = rg tan θ (34)

Therefore, p
v= (130)(9.8)(tan 70◦ ) = 59 m/s (35)

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6.4 Fictitious Forces
This will be a short section, but it is an important conceptional detail.
There are some forces that we can experience which are not real, hence why
we call them Fictitious Forces. For example, when you are flying on an
airplane and you take off, you tend to feel as though you are being pushed
backwards in your seat. However, this is actually just a “fake force”, since
you are not moving and your seat is exerting force on you. Another example
is when you take a sharp turn in a car. Assume that we are turning to the
right, and thus what would be the direction we feel a “force” in this case?
We would feel a force to the left. We know from the previous section that the
actual centripetal force due to the circular motion will be to the right, since
that is towards the center of curvature. Our bodies tend to be moving in a
straight line relative to the earth, while the car is moving to the right, and
from there you can kind of see how you tend to move towards the left side
of the car as the car exerts a force on you to the right. It is a weird concept,
but the important aspect of this is that the force is not real, and the reason
we feel it has to do with so-called non-inertial frames of reference. The
car is accelerating to the right, which means that using the car as a frame of
reference is non-inertial and will give us a fictitious force, which in this case
is called the centrifugal force. This is a fictitious force that opposes the
centripetal force (that only appears in the car’s frame of reference). However
if we use the earth as a frame of reference, we will see that the force does
not actually exist. In conclusion, the takeaway is that the centrifugal force
is fictitious and opposite in direction/equal in magnitude to the centripetal
force. I recommend reading the textbook for a more thorough rundown of
this topic and to be able to see more figures that are better than what I can
describe or draw.

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6.5 Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation
Now that we have finished our discussion on uniform circular motion, we
can move onto another topic that is closely related, the concept of gravita-
tional forces between large objects. The same force that keeps us from being
able to float around the sky is what causes planets to orbit the sun. Gravity
is incredibly important and yet the least understood of the four basic forces
of nature. It acts without physical contact, from a large distance away, and
it is valid at all points in the universe and masses. The first person to make
this connection was Issac Newton, hence why this law that we will discuss
is named after him. Let’s write down a few details about the gravitational
force so that we can express and understand Newton’s Universal Law of
Gravitation.
- Always attractive (force is always pulling two objects together)
- Depends only on the masses and distance between them
In other words, the law states that every particle in the universe attracts
every other particle with a force along a line joining them. The force is then
proportional by:
F ∝ m1 m2
1
F ∝ 2
r
Please note that if we swap the masses, the force will still be the same. This
implies that the gravitational force of one object on the other is the same as
the second object on the first, thus satisfying Newton’s third law. With all
of this information, we can now write down the equation explicitly (with the
bonus of a proportionality constant):
m1 m2
F =G (36)
r2
The proportionality constant G us called the gravitational constant, which
is the same everywhere in the universe (or at least thought to be). We have
experimentally measured it to be:

Nm2
G = 6.673 × 10−11 (37)
kg2
This means that if we have 2 1 kg mass objects that are seperated by 1
meter, the gravitational force between them is 6.673 × 10−11 N. With this

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information, let’s do a simple exercise to make sure that I haven’t lied to you
about the acceleration due to gravity. Let m1 be some arbitrary object on
earth, and let m2 be the mass of the earth. If we let this object be on the
surface of the earth, r is then going to be the radius of the Earth. Setting
the gravitational force equation and the weight of the object equal to each
other we have:
m1 m2
m1 g = G 2 (38)
r
m2
g=G 2 (39)
r
If we plug in known values:

5.98 × 1024
g = (6.67 × 10−11 ) (40)
(6.38 × 106 )2

This gives us the correct result (note that it is independent of the object’s
mass):
g = 9.80 m/s2 (41)
Side note: We have two different ideas for mass that we have consider: in-
ertial mass and gravitational mass. They have the same value, however we
measure them in different ways. The inertial mass is measured by an object’s
resistance to changes in velocity (this comes from our discussion on forces).
The gravitational mass comes from the force on an object in a gravitational
field.
Let’s continue on and do two quick examples:
Example 7:
What is the gravity on the surface of the moon?
Solution:

M 7.3 × 1022
g=G = (6.67 × 10−11
) × = 1.685 m/s2 (42)
r2 (1.7 × 106 )2

Example 8:
What is the gravitational field that I exert on objects 15 meters away from
me?
Solution:

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 M 52.16
g=G 2
= (6.67 × 10−11 ) = 1.55 × 10−11 m/s2 (43)
r 152
Newton made another observation about this subject: if the gravitational
force causes the moon to orbit Earth, then the acceleration due to gravity
should be the same as the centripetal acceleration of the Moon. We will see
this in action through the next example:
Example 9:
Find the acceleration due to Earth’s gravity at the Moon, and then calculate
the centripetal acceleration that keeps the Moon in its circular orbit around
the Earth.
Solution:
First, we have to find the acceleration due to the Earth’s gravitational
field with r being the distance from the Earth to the Moon.

M 5.98 × 1024
g=G = (6.67 × 10−11
) × = 2.7 × 10−3 m/s2 (44)
r2 (3.84 × 108 )2

The second part of this is a bit harder, we want to find the centripetal
acceleration from:
ac = rω 2 (45)
In order to solve this, we need to find ω from:
∆θ
ω= (46)
∆t
In a full revolution we know that:

∆θ = 2π radians (47)

The period (the time to make one complete rotation) of the Moon orbiting
the Earth is 27.3 days. Since 1 day is equal to 86,400 seconds,

∆t = (86400)(27.3) = 2358720 seconds (48)

Therefore,
2π rad
ω= = 2.66 × 10−6 (49)
2358720 s

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Thus,

ac = rω 2 = (3.84 × 108 )(2.66 × 10−−6 )2 = 2.72 × 10−3 m/s2 (50)

The reason these are not exactly identical is because the orbit is slightly
elliptical, and we should have actually taken r as the distance from the Earth
to the Moon, plus the addition 1700 kilometers it takes to get to the center
of the Earth’s mass (under the surface of the Earth). However, Newton’s
observation was indeed correct in this case.
Now that we’ve discussed the effect of the Earth on the Moon, it is only
natural to recall that the Moon must have an equal and opposite force on the
Earth. This force acts on us as a part of the gravitational force of the Earth,
but the Moon has other interesting effects on our planet. For example, the
side of the Earth that is closest to the moon exhibits high tide since the
moon’s force is greatest and the water is being pulled away from the Earth.
The opposite side of the Earth is also experiences high tide because the Earth
is being pulled away from the water in that case. (Low tide occurs on the
sides of the Earth that are perpendicular to the Moon in a sense.) This is
more of a fun fact that something that would likely come up on an AP exam.

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6.6 Satellites and Kepler’s Laws: An Argu-
ment for Simplicity
For this section, we will be discussing a specific class of orbits (the simplest
type that we can easily discuss) with the following characteristics:
1. A small mass m orbits a much larger mass M . Thus, we can view M as
stationary, with m being a satelite of M .
2. The system is isolated from other masses, and we can ignore any small
effects due to outside masses.
To good approximation, Earth’s satellites (Moon included), satellites of
other planets, and objects orbiting the sun all satisfy these conditions. Jo-
hannes Kepler created a set of three laws which describe these special types
of orbits, called Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. Note: Each satellite
orbits around a “parent” which is usually some type of planet or celestial
body like the Sun.
Kepler’s First Law: The orbit of each planet about the Sun is an ellipse
with the Sun at one focus (Draw it)
Kepler’s Second Law: Each planet moves so that an imaginary line drawn
from the Sun to the planet sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
Kepler’s Third Law: The ratio of the squares of the periods of any two
planets about the Sun is equal to the ratio of the cubes of their average
distances from the Sun.
T12 r13
= (51)
T22 r23
This is only valid for two small masses orbiting the same large ones.
Example 10:
I have sent an artificial satellite into orbit around the Earth in an effort to
spy on other PhD students to make sure they don’t publish my research
before me. We want to compare the period of this satellite to the period of
the Moon, if it is orbiting at an average altitude of 1500 km above Earth’s
surface. (Moon’s period is 27.3 days and it orbits at an average distance of
3.84 × 108 m).
Solution:
Let’s denote the satellite as 1 and the Moon as 2. We need to find the
total radius of the satellite by adding the radius of the Earth to the distance

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above the Earth.
r1 = 1500 + 6380 = 7880 km (52)
Now, we can plug everything into Kepler’s third law:

T12 T12
= (53)
T22 27.3

r13 (7880)3
= (54)
r23 (3.84 × 108 )3
Rearranging, (and multiplying by 24 hours)
r
7880
3
T1 = (27.3)(24) = 1.93 hr (55)
3.84 × 105
We will now derive a few consequences of Kepler’s third law starting from
Newton’s second law:
v2
Fnet = mac = m (56)
r
The net force is equal to the gravitational force:

mM v2
G = m (57)
r2 r
This yields,
M
v2 = G (58)
r
We can use this to find the speed an object is orbiting around a large M .
We can continue on to define v as the circumference divided by the period:
2πr
v= (59)
T
Substituting this in yields:

4π 2 r2 M
2
=G (60)
T r
Solving for T 2 :
4π 2 3
T2 = r (61)
GM

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This allows us to solve for the period of a satellites orbit. From here we can
easily derive Kepler’s law by dividing T1 by T2 , but since we already know
what it looks like I won’t write it again. We instead rearrange to:

r3 G
= M (62)
T2 4π 2
Which allows us to find M (mass of planet or other large body) if we know
the radius and period of a satellite orbiting.
Lastly, the book contains a table of different parent-satellite combinations
3
along with their r, T , and Tr 2 ratio. You may need to reference that for some
problems and such.

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