A Refresher on Curvature for Application to Centripetal Acceleration

Abstract

Three derivations of the standard formula for the curvature K of a plane curve y(x) are reviewed. Curvature is equal to 1 / r , where r is the radius of curvature, and is thus needed to compute the centripetal acceleration of a particle traversing that path. As an example, the centripetal and tangential accelerations are calculated for a projectile on its parabolic trajectory.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2010
Accession Number
ADA534893

Entities

People

  • Carl E. Mungan

Organizations

  • United States Naval Academy

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Resistance
  • Angular Momentum
  • Aphelions
  • Curvature
  • Electronic Mail
  • Elliptical Orbits
  • Energy Conservation
  • Geometric Forms
  • Geometry
  • Gravitational Fields
  • Information Operations
  • Orbits
  • Particles
  • Perihelions
  • Standards
  • Trajectories
  • United States Naval Academy

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Control Systems Engineering.
  • Fluid Dynamics.