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What is the magnitude of the tangential, normal and total accelerations here

Physics Asked by user161158 on March 9, 2021

The question is as follow:

A particle moves in the xy plane with velocity $vec{v}=ahat{i}+(bt)hat{j}$ at time $t=frac{sqrt{3}a}{b}$ , find the magnitude of the tangential, normal and total acceleration.

If I differentiate it I get $a = bhat{j}$ (i.e. $|vec{a}| = b$). But if I write $|vec v|= sqrt{a^2+b^2t^2}$ and then solve for acceleration ,I get $|vec a| = {(b^2t)oversqrt{a^2+t^2b^2}}$. I can’t match this result with the previous one. Please help.

2 Answers

Your derivative is wrong. If you take the time derivative of $vec{v}$, you should get $vec{a}=frac{dvec{v}}{dt}=bhat{j}$.

Note that in this case, it's not correct to take the time derivative of the magnitude $|vec{v}|$. This only tells you the rate of change of speed, but this is not equal to $|vec{a}|$.

Consider the case where a point is moving around a circle at constant speed. In this case, we have $frac{d|vec{v}|}{dt}=0$, since the speed is a constant. However, $aneq 0$. This is because the direction of $vec{v}$ is changing, and some acceleration is needed to make this change happen.

Answered by PeaBrane on March 9, 2021

Note that this equation resembles the one for a projectile coming down (with +y down). If you put the given time in the velocity equation, you get the components (and direction) for the velocity at that time. The acceleration is in the y direction, but you can get the components of the acceleration which are parallel and perpendicular to the velocity.

Answered by R.W. Bird on March 9, 2021

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