Question

An object moving in a circle is represented by the motion map.An illustration of a circle with four black dots on the top labeled W, bottom labeled Y, left labeled Z and right labeled X of the circle. Each dot has a vector toward the center of the circle of equal length and a vector tangent to the circle in a counterclockwise direction of equal length.Based on the map, at which point is the object accelerating toward the right?WXYZ

Answer 1

Since this is a circular motion, we know that the we have a centripetal acceleration; we know that this type of acceleration always points towards the center of the circle. This means that the acceleration is represented by the vectors that point towards the center. Looking at them we notice that at point Z the acceleration is pointing to the right.

Therefore, the object is accelerating to the right at Z