Dynamics of Uniform Circular Motion2

5.1 Uniform Circular Motion
DEFINITION OF UNIFORM CIRCULAR MOTION
Uniform circular motion is the motion of an object traveling at a constant speed on a circular path.
There are two aspects to any motion. In a purely descriptive sense, there is the movement itself. Is it rapid or slow, for instance? Then, there is the issue of what causes the motion or what changes it, which requires that forces be considered. Kinematics deals with the concepts that are needed to describe motion. without any reference to forces. The present chapter discusses these concepts as they apply to motion in one dimension, and the next chapter treats two-dimensional motion. Dynamics deals with the effect that forces have on motion, a topic that is considered in Chapter 4. Together, kinematics and dynamics form the branch of physics known as mechanics. We turn now to the ?rst of the kinematics concepts to be discussed, which is displacement.
To describe the motion of an object, we must be able to specify the location of theobject at all times, and Figure 2.1 shows how to do this for one-dimensional motion. In this drawing, the initial position of a car is indicated by the vector labeled x