You are driving north on a highway. then, without changing speed, you round a curve and drive east. does your velocity change? do you accelerate? explain.

Question

Physics

Franco Bradshaw

4 July, 15:16

You are driving north on a highway. then, without changing speed, you round a curve and drive east. does your velocity change? do you accelerate? explain.

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Alejandro Sloan · Answer 1

Good afternoon!

The velocity vector changes from direction, but the velocity value is constant, since its value do not change.

Yes, you accelerate, since the only way to make an object change its direction (and inertia) is applying a force to it. With a force, we always have acceleration. In this case, you gain a centripetal acceleration, that is responsible to change the direction, but not the value of the velocity.