Angular Displacement, θ: Circular Motion
Angular Displacement, θ: Circular Motion
Circular Motion
Angular Displacement, θ
As the car travels from X to Y it has travelled a distance of s and has covered a
section of the complete circle it will make. It has covered and angle of θ which is
called the angular displacement.
arc s
radius r
Angular Displacement is measured in radians, rad
Radians
1 radian is the angle made when the arc of a circle is equal to the radius.
arc circumference 2r
For a complete circle 2
radius radius r
A complete circle is 360° so 360° = 2π rad
1° = 0.017 rad 57.3° = 1 rad
Angular Speed, ω
Angular speed is the rate of change of angular displacement, or the angle that is covered every second.
t
Angular Speed is measured in radians per second, rad/s or rad s-1
Frequency, f
Frequency is the number of complete circles that occur every second.
For one circle; 2 , if we substitute this into the equation above we get
2
t
This equation says that the angular speed (angle made per second) is equal to one
circle divided by the time taken to do it. Very similar to speed = distance/time
1
Since f the above equation can be written as 2f
T
Frequency is measures in Hertz, Hz
Speed, v
The velocity of the car is constantly changing because the direction is constantly changing. The speed however,
is constant and can be calculated.
s
v If we rearrange the top equation we can get r s , the speed then becomes
t
r
v Now if we rearrange the second equation we get t , the equation becomes
t
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rt
v Cancel the t’s and we finally arrive at our equation for the speed.
t
v r
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