What is Centripetal Acceleration?

Centripetal acceleration is the acceleration felt by an object moving on a circular route toward the center of the circle. This acceleration is responsible for shifting the direction of the object’s velocity, ensuring that it remains in circular motion.

Acceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity. Since acceleration and velocity are both vector quantities, they depend on direction. So, either there is a change in the magnitude of the velocity or direction of the velocity. In a circular motion, there is always an acceleration because the velocity of the object is continuously changing. This acceleration is felt whenever a person is turning a car, there is a force acting on the person and the wheel too. The force depends on the radius of the turn and the velocity of the object. This means, the sharper the turn, the more force acts on the body. 

Centripetal acceleration refers to the acceleration experienced by an object moving in a circular route. Unlike linear acceleration, which changes an item’s speed in a straight line, centripetal acceleration alters the direction of motion, causing the object to constantly shift its velocity vector in order to maintain circular motion.

There are a lot of objects around us in real life that are constantly performing circular motion, even our planet revolves around the sun in a similar fashion. It is known that velocity is a vector quantity and any object performing circular motion is undergoing a change of velocity. Since there is a change in velocity, a force must be there that acts on the body to change its velocity continuously and make it perform the circular motion. This change in velocity is called acceleration. In this article, we will learn in detail about centripetal acceleration, its formula, derivation, and applications.