Chapter 17. Circular Motion (Part 2) Staying on track
Ever feel like someone’s gone off at a tangent? That’s exactly what happens when you try to move an object along a circular path when there’s not enough centripetal force to enable this to happen. In this chapter, you’ll learn exactly what centripetal force is and how it can keep you on track. Along the way, you’ll even solve
Houston ... we have a problem
Astronauts at the Head First space station are threatening to go on strike. They’re fed up with floating around all the time. The astronauts want to be able to walk around the station just like they can on Earth.
You’ve been called in to create artificial gravity for an add-on to the station... and keep those astronauts happy.
If an object is in freefall, the only force acting on the object is its own weight.
The space station is in FREEFALL.
The only force acting on the space station is the force of its weight - the gravitational attraction it experiences from the Earth. It’s not touching anything else, so there are no contact forces on it. And the lack of atmosphere means that there’s no friction either as it orbits the Earth.
If an object is in freefall, then the only force acting on ...
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