Every object moving in a circle will experience a force pushing or pulling it toward the center of the circle. Whether it’s a car making a turn and the friction force from the road are acting on the wheels of the car, or a bucket is swung around your head and the tension of the rope keeps it moving in a circle, they all have to have a force keeping them moving in that circle, and that force is called centripetal force. Without it, objects could never change their direction. Because centripetal force is tangent to the velocity vector, the force can change the direction of an object without changing the magnitude.
Please login or register to read the rest of this content.