On this day in physics: 05 February 1915- We say Happy Birthday to Robert Hofstadter, an American Physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in 1961. He shared the prize with Rudolf Mössbauer, however they won for separate contributions. According to the Nobel Prize official award, "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1961 was divided equally between Robert Hofstadter "for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons" and Rudolf Mössbauer "for his researches concerning the resonance absorption of gamma radiation and his discovery in this connection of the effect which bears his name"." [Source] [Source]
Word of the Day: Centripetal Acceleration is an inward acceleration experienced by an object experiencing curved or circular motion. So, consider F = ma, Force is equal to Mass times Acceleration. So, we have examined in two previous words of the day what mass and acceleration are. So if we have an object of constant mass, and it starts to experience curved motion, the velocity is changing all the time, because THE DIRECTION OF THE VECTOR IS CHANGING. In circular motion, the acceleration is always pointed radially inwards towards the center of the circle. The force generated by this acceleration is known as centripetal force. Many people confuse this with centrifugal force. Now, imagine you're driving a race car around a track about to take the first half-circle curve. We know the radius of this circle, and can read from the speedometer the speed. The centripetal force can be calculated as F = m*v^2/r. So the force is dependent on the radius of the curve, because this defines how tight the curve is, how fast you're going, and the mass of your car. Now, a body moving wants to travel in a straight line, so there must be an unbalanced force in order to create the circular motion of your car. What gives this force is the friction between the tires and the track. This friction will only sustain a car going in a circle up to a certain velocity for a given radius of curve. After that, the car will begin to move in a straight line again, and is what causes cars to skid on curves.
Quote of the Day: "The fact that mankind persists shows that the cohesive force is greater than the disruptive force, centripetal force greater than centrifugal." -Ghandi
Keywords: Centrifugal, Force, Acceleration, Curve, Circular, Motion, Centripetal, Friction.
