5.3. Circular Motion http://www.ck12.org
FIGURE 5.20
5.21 show two “almost” similar triangles.
FIGURE 5.21
The magnitudes of−V 1 andV 2 are equal, and the change in location of the car occurs over a very small increment
in time,∆t. The velocities are tangent to the circle and therefore perpendicular to the radius of the circle. As such,
the “radius” triangle and the “velocity” triangle are approximately similar (see theFigure5.21). We construct an