After going to the grocery store you place the bag of groceries next to you on the seat of the car. During the drive home you turn a corner to the left and the bag of groceries tips over.
a) In which direction does the bag tip?
b) explain why it tipped over. Should include centripetal, friction, and inertia.


a. right
b. could you please help? Not really sure at all.

Which part of this do you need help with? You haven't shown your work, per the policy of this site, so I don't know how to assist you. Do you understand what centripetal force, friction, and inertia are?

No I don't really understand it and was looking for someone to help explain it so I did understand it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by billybob50

After going to the grocery store you place the bag of groceries next to you on the seat of the car. During the drive home you turn a corner to the left and the bag of groceries tips over.
a) In which direction does the bag tip?
b) explain why it tipped over. Should include centripetal, friction, and inertia.


a. right
b. could you please help? not really sure at all.

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Newton can provide all of the answers to those questions.

However, think about your own experiences in a motor car. There is a tendency for moving objects (motor car, yourself and grocery bag) to continue in a straight line. As you are aware when you are in a car moving at a constant speed everything in the car is also moving at that speed.

However, when the car suddenly makes a sharp turn there is a tendency for everything not attached to the car( you and the grocery bag) to continue in a straight line. You and the bag will continue in this line until the door pushes upon you effectively accelerating you towards the centre of the turn. A good thing the door was locked?

Unfortunately for the grocery bag sitting on the seat there was nothing for it to push against so it tips over. I assume friction will hold the bag to the seat for a short period thus causing it to topple.

Perhaps you could view inertia as a form of laziness. The move massive an object the lazier it is. Massive object exhibit a greater resistance to change.It takes a large amount of energy to get a massive object moving, but once it motion it takes a great amount of energy to get it to stop or change direction.

A grocery bag not being very massive is very susceptible to changes in velocity. Think about it. It only requires us to brake slightly and our groceries will be all over the floor.

I am not sure if this was the type of explanation you were looking for. I hope it was.


Tut

Only thing I would add to Tut's excellent description is that friction is required fro the bag to tip over - otherwise it would slide across the seat without tipping. The friction between the seat and the bottom of the bag tends to hold the bottom of the bag in place on the seat as the car turns, while the bags momentum tends to "push" the center of mass of the bag to the right (as viewed by someone in the car). The result is the bag tips.