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surajit001
Jan 1, 2013, 04:36 PM
Centripetal force and centrifugal force concept.Please help me evaluate my concept if its right or wrong? I went through a lot of textbooks but I couldnot find any satisfactory explanation, so I kind of visualized things and made my own idea.
On an unbanked turn, as the car makes the turn, the people in the car experience a force radially outward from the center of the turn. The first question is what is unknown force which pushes us away from it. This force is called centrifugal force which actually exists due to the gravitational force between the center of the turn and the object .That is the car is also pushed away outward in the same way but the force resists that motion is the friction force between the tyres and the road, the reaction gravitation force which acts radially inward along the radial line. This force is called centripetal force which is responsible for the turn.
Since the force of gravitation is so less in magnitude, we can almost consider the value to be ignored.
F = mv^2/r;
F = friction force = k N = kmg
Kmg = mv^2/r
Kmgr/m = v^2;
V = root(kgr);

Next concept is that of banked circular turn.
On an banked circular turn , the circular turn makes an angle a with the horizontal; The same thing will happen, the gravitational force will push us away but as we are at angle, we will only feel a component of the gravitational force and that means the banked turn reduces the gravitational effect.
The component of gravitational force from the center of the turn will try to push the body outward but friction will prevent that. Friction will act along the incline plane. It is so important to understand that this centrifugal force is nothing but gravitational force. This gravitational force is the key concept in understanding why friction plays such an important role while taking a turn. That is why if there was no friction on an unbanked circular track, we would have flown away radially outward.