- #1
Amr Elsayed
- 90
- 3
Hello,
Here is a thing I'm confused about.
when I first knew about centripetal force and satellites. I thought of it the exact way like projectiles. I thought like :satellites do fall. If we specify a single direction, the magnitude of the velocity is really changing. I thought of its path that it's a combination between inertia outwards and gravity to the center, and that inertia overcomes gravity, so the satellite has this kind of a circular path, and the direction of motion by the 2 forces is closer to the direction of inertia pushing outwards.
I have read on the physics classroom that magnitude of velocity is not changing, but since direction is changing, a change in velocity leads to acceleration. But acceleration is also a vector quantity and it should have a direction !
It really makes no sense for me to say that direction of this acceleration is inwards
Please help me find out what's wrong right here
Regards
Here is a thing I'm confused about.
when I first knew about centripetal force and satellites. I thought of it the exact way like projectiles. I thought like :satellites do fall. If we specify a single direction, the magnitude of the velocity is really changing. I thought of its path that it's a combination between inertia outwards and gravity to the center, and that inertia overcomes gravity, so the satellite has this kind of a circular path, and the direction of motion by the 2 forces is closer to the direction of inertia pushing outwards.
I have read on the physics classroom that magnitude of velocity is not changing, but since direction is changing, a change in velocity leads to acceleration. But acceleration is also a vector quantity and it should have a direction !
It really makes no sense for me to say that direction of this acceleration is inwards
Please help me find out what's wrong right here
Regards