Theoretical Mechanics: Fall-2021
Practice Acceleration in Polar Coordinates: Due Day 16
- Acceleration in Polar Coordinates
The acceleration vector written in polar coordinates is:
\[\vec{a} = \big[\ddot{s}-s\dot{\phi}^2\big]\hat{s}+\big[2\dot{s}\dot{\phi}+s\ddot{\phi}\big]\hat{\phi}\]
Below are motion diagrams, where each dot represents the location of a particle at equal time intervals.
For each motion diagram, indicate the direction of the acceleration vector at the middle dot (point 3) by sketching velocity vectors for points 2&4 and subtracting them.
Break the acceleration vector into polar components and match the components to terms in the acceleration equation above.
