CONTENTS

4 Fictitious forces and Circular motion 2

4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4.2 Circular motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4.2.1 Angular velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4.3 Non-uniform Circular motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.4 Mathematical formulation of central motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.5 Standard examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.5.1 Circular turning and banked roads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.6 Centrifugal force* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.7 Earth’s rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.8 Exercises: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.9 Answer keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

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 CHAPTER 4

FICTITIOUS FORCES AND CIRCULAR

MOTION

4.1 Introduction
In the previous chapter, we had studied how Newton’s laws describe interaction between objects,
but what we did not discuss was the presence of forces that indirectly affect the motion of and
object.
Consider a ball of mass m. Now, if you tie this ball to a string and rotate the string at some angular
velocity, you would naturally experience the string pulling on you. This is what we call centrifugal
force. Now, of course, this is not some new kind of force, rather, it is the tension in the string that
acts itself as the fictitious force.
We had previously defined inertial and non-inertial systems, where we understood forces from dif-
ferent frames of reference. We noted that the Earth itself provides a good inertial system. But the
restriction is that it is not that good an inertial system due to its rotation, which for us does not
seem like much, but is sufficiently fast. One consequence of Earth’s rotation, is the Coriolis force
that causes large weather systems to rotate.
Now, let us try to understand these so-called fictitious forces mathematically.

I will present to you an equation, which in itself holds the crisp of all fictitious forces that we

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

are going to encounter.

:
Fapparent “ Ftrue ´ M R

Here, the last term can be treated as the additional force that we have been talking about.
We can then write;
Fapparent “ Ftrue ` Ff ictitious

where, you can clearly see that Ff ictitious “ ´M R. :

Here, M is the mass of the object, and R : is the acceleration of the non-inertial system with respect
to any inertial system.
Here’s a cool experiment for you to perform:
Sit on a merry-go-round in a park with one of your friends. Next, while holding a ball close to
yourself, try to throw it in a straight line to your friend. What will you notice, does the ball travel
in the straight line that you intended it to?
I would like to point out that this does not conclude our discussion about fictitious forces, rather
the whole chapter of circular motion revolves around fictitious forces, which we are going to discuss
now.

4.2 Circular motion

4.2.1 Angular velocity
The angular position of any particle, generally denoted by θ, when differentiated with respect to
time, gives us the quantity angular velocity.

dθ
ω“
dt
And, the rate of change of angular velocity is called the angular acceleration.

dω d2 θ
α“ “ 2
dt dt

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

The variables in circular motion are analogous to the variables in linear motion as shown in
the table below:
Analogy between variables in linear and circular motion
Linear motion Variables Circular motion Variable
terms terms
linear displacement s angular displace- θ
ment
initial linear veloc- u initial angular ve- ωo
ity locity
final linear velocity v final angular veloc- ω
ity
linear acceleration a angular accelera- α
tion
Similarly, the equations of motions in one dimension can too be related to equation of
motion in uniform circular motion.

Analogously, we can write Newton’s equations of motion for circular motion as follows:

Analogy between equations of motion in linear and circular motion

S. No. Equations of motion in 1- Equations of motion in uniform
Dimension circular motion
1
1 1
s “ ut ` at2 θ “ ωo t ` αt2
2 2

2
v “ u ` at ω “ ωo ` αt

3
v 2 “ u2 ` 2as ω 2 “ ωo2 ` 2αθ

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

I would now like you, based on your understanding of Newton’s laws of motion, to arrive at the
following relations:
v “ rω

at “ rα

Did you notice, while deriving the expressions above, that at is the rate of change of speed and
not the rate of change of velocity. What can you conclude about the net acceleration then? Is there
a component of acceleration that is involved in the force that is not visible in our equations?
To mention that there is a component of force involved in a business that does not seem obvious is
rather incomplete.

Consider the Earth rotating around the Sun. According to Kepler’s laws of planetary motion,
the motion of the Earth with respect to the Sun is such that the Earth revolves around the
Sun in an elliptical path. But what is that force that holds the earth around the Sun in
perpetual motion? Well, you will say, ”Of course its gravity!” and you are right.
It is gravity that causes that ”radial” acceleration that pulls the Earth toward the Sun,
whereas it is the ”tangential” acceleration that leads to the transnational motion of the
Earth. Together, they lead to the Earth’s revolution.

4.3 Non-uniform Circular motion

Now that we are familiar with the concept of tangential and radial acceleration, we are in a position
to deal with a slightly more complex form of circular motion.
If the speed of some particle moving in a circular path, is not constant. So, the acceleration has
dv
both, the tangential and radial components, which are, ar “ ´ω 2 r and at “ . So, the magnitude
dt
of the net acceleration will be:
dv
at “
dt

v2
ar “
r

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

dˆ ˙2 ˆ ˙2
v2 dv
b
a “ a2r ` a2t “ `
r dt
You can see for yourself that this net resultant acceleration makes some angle α with the radius of
the circle; ˜` ˘¸
dv
α “ tan ´1
` vdt2 ˘
r

4.4 Mathematical formulation of central motion

Sitting in an inertial frame of reference, if you observe a particle of mass m undergoing circular
motion, then it is now understood to you that the net acceleration is not zero, that is, the force
acting on the particle must be non-zero.
Central acceleration of that particle would be

v2
a“
r

and from Newton’s second law, we have

F
a“
m
Combining the two equations, we get an expression that would yield the force acting on that particle
of mass m, moving with some velocity v.

mv 2
F “
r

What do you assert is the velocity that is taken here, is it the tangential velocity?

This is where we get the origin of the term centripetal force, since the force is centre-seeking.

I would again like to emphasize that centripetal force is not some new kind of force; rather,
it is those forces that compel an object into circular motion. They could be Coulombic,
nuclear, gravitational, friction, tension, etc.

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

4.5 Standard examples

There are few examples that you are going to have to encounter either in this chapter or some other
time later on in your courses. We are going to mainly focus on mechanical physics in this chapter.

4.5.1 Circular turning and banked roads

Have you ever been on a banked circular road? If yes, then you might have experienced a slight
pull on yourself while moving on it. Why do you think this happens?
What would happen if the road was not banked, would the vehicle that you’re sitting in, fly off the
road if its moving at some high speed?
The answer is, probably yes. We will discuss the physics of banking the road in the section.
It is worth noting that the external forces acting on your vehicle are:

1. weight of the vehicle pM Gq,

2. Normal force on the vehicle pN q,

3. and friction from the road.

I would like to test your intuition and ask you this: Which force according to you would act
as the centre seeking force? (Keep in mind, that it is this force that you feel is pushing you
away from your car as you move on that banked road).

Ff

It is worth noting that if the road is horizontal, then the

normal acting on the car by the road would be vertically upward. And I think that this is kind of
obvious.
But since the road that we are on, is slightly banked, it means that the normal force has a component
in the horizontal direction and one in the vertical direction.

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

So, based on our understanding of Newton’s laws, for a safe turning on a circular road, that is NOT
banked, the condition that must hold true is:

v2 Fs
“
r M

But keep in mind that the coefficient of friction is a constant value under most conditions, so the
value of Fs must not exceed a certain value, and that is

Fs ď µs M g,

thus, we can conclude that on a circular road, that is not inclined/banked, the limiting velocity at
which the vehicle will not be thrown off the road is given by

?
vď µs rg (where r is the radius of the circular road)

Now, since the condition that there is friction present on the road and so vehicles travelling at faster
speeds will not always stay on the road. So, there is another engineering hack that we are supposed
to come up with, and we have already mentioned it above, that is, banking the roads at a specific
angle.
But before we start, I would like to ask you, whether the angles at which the road is banked varies
for specific speeds or remains constant?
Coming back to our discussion, look at the figure below:

Ff

Mg

N N cospαq
α

N sinpαq

Applying Newton’s laws, we get that the angle at which for a given speed

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

speed, the vehicle will not be thrown off is:

M v2
N sinpθq “
r

and
N cospθq “ M g,

so, upon combining the two equations we get,

v2
tanpθq “
rg

Keep in mind that the value of the banking angle θ depends on the vehicle’s velocity. So,
this answers the question that I previously asked: whether different angles are required for
different speeds of the vehicle, and as you have noticed till now, the answer to this question
is, yes.

4.6 Centrifugal force*

What we have discussed in the previous section is as much as an example of centripetal force as it
is for centrifugal force. Here’s how:
We have already studied inertial and non-inertial frames of reference. So, if you are yourself in the
car, you feel pushed away from the car, and as much as this can be credited to your body’s inertia
1
and Newton’s first law, what you are actually experiencing is the centrifugal force
I would now like you to see for yourself that the expression that for this case is the same as the
one we get in the previous section relating the force necessary to keep the object in motion and the
velocity of the object.

Learners frequently believe that centrifugal force acts on a particle because the particle
moves in a circle. Because we describe the particle from a rotating non-inertial frame and
nevertheless utilise Newton’s laws, centrifugal force acts (or is presumed to act).

1 What I mean by experiencing this force is, again we have to careful while talking about this, since it is not some

new force is the tendency of your body to resist your state of motion, from your frame of reference, whereas for
someone standing on the ground, if you were suddenly let go by the car, you would travel in a straight line as you
are no longer being held by the force that caused you to experience a push off.

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

4.7 Earth’s rotation

What would you experience your weight to be, if you stood on a weighing machine at the equator
of the earth? Will it be the same weight that you would experience at some other place on the
surface of the earth, assuming that you do not undergo dieting while all the travelling that you do?
The answer is no, you will not weigh the same at the equator of the earth as you would at some
other place on the surface of the earth. In fact, if you stood at either of the poles. you would weigh
the maximum as compared to any other place on earth’s surface.
The reason why I wrote earth’s surface a couple times above is because the acceleration due to
gravity decreases as you go farther from earth’s surface or deeper into its surface, towards earth’s
core. You will explore this concept in more detail in the chapter gravitation.
Now, the result that we get that gives the relationship between acceleration due to gravity and the
effect of earth’s rotation on acceleration due to gravity, that is, g, is a simple but engaging problem
involving geometry. i will just provide to you the essentials to work out for yourself the following
result:
N

θ
α mω 2 R
1
mg
mg

mg 1 “ mg ´ mω 2 R,

where g 1 is the effective gravity at different places on earth’s surface and R is earth’s effective radius.
For the sake of the physicist inside you, that is willing to accept a challenge, here’s a fun task:
Work out the angle α that is the inclination angle between the resultant value of g after being affected
by the rotation of the earth.

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

The final expression must be of the form

ω 2 R sinpθq cospθq
tanpαq “
g ´ ω 2 Rsin2 pθq

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

4.8 Exercises:
Single choice questions:

1. In the figure shown below, there’s a bead of mass m “ 100 g, which slides over a horizontal
circular rod of radius R “ 0.3 m. In order to keep things real, there’s a certain amount of
friction between the rod and the collar, whose value is µ “ 0.8.
If we assume that we are making all the observations before the bead comes to a stop, then
the angle made by the with vertical by the force applied by the rod on the collar when speed
of the collar at some instant of time, is 2 m{s,

´ ¯
(a) θ “ cos´1 ?3
41
´ ¯
(b) θ “ sin´1 ?4
40
´ ¯
(c) θ “ cos´1 ?2
14
´ ¯
(d) θ “ sin´1 ?4
41

2. The magnitude of a particle’s linear acceleration as it moves in a circle of radius 1 0cm and
uniform speed, completing the circle in 4 seconds is

(a) 25π 2 cm{s2

(b) 2.5π 2 cm{s2
(c) 1.5π cm{s2
(d) 5π 3 cm{s2

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

3. According to the theory b

of gravitation, the escape velocity of any body on the surface of the
2GM
earth is given by ve “ R2 where G is the universal constant of gravitation, Re is the
e

radius of the earth, and M is the mass of the earth.

Now, if a body is accidentally brought closer to a supermassive black hole, whose mass is
orders of magnitude higher than that of our sun, then if that object got close enough to the
black hole it would not be possible to get it out of the gravitational sink that its falling in.
Choose the correct theoretical approach to get the body out of the black hole’s sink:

(a) If we increase the speed of the object by some means as it closes on the black hole, then
it might be possible to escape its gravitational sink.
(b) Option (a) is incorrect as even a beam of light, which travels at the ultimate speed cannot
escape the black hole’s event horizon.
(c) Option (b) is incorrect as we have seen the image of the black hole previously released by
the EHT , and now a reconfigured image was released recently by them, which indicates
that it is possible for the light beam to escape the black hole.
(d) None of the above.

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

4. Two scientists were in their laboratory when they observed a small bug trying to climb from
the inside of a hemispherical bowl of radius R. They noticed the insect out of curiosity, for
over 15 minutes and always noted that it could not climb higher than 45o as measured from
the centre of the bowl.
So they decided to use physics to help the insect achieve greater heights.
They vertically placed the bowl on a rotor which could rotate with extreme RP M s, and and
noted that as they increased the angular velocity of the rotor, the insect could climb higher
in the bowl.
They now want to theoretically calculate the angular speed at which the insect is able to
climb to an angle of 60o .
What was their theoretical prediction of the speed at which the insect achieved that inclina-
tion?
ω

c ?
2g p2 3`1q
(a) ω “ ?
R p3´ 3q
c ?
g p 3´1q
(b) ω “ ?
R p3` 3q
c ?
g p 3`1q
(c) ω “ ?
R p3´ 3q
c ?
g p2 3´1q
(d) ω “ ?
R p3` 3q

5. Since the scientists in the previous question soon got bored, they decided to go a little farther
in their play. They wanted to figure out the minimum value of angular velocity, at which the
insect would move out of the bowl. What is that velocity, keeping the conditions exactly the
same?
ag
(a) ω “ R
b
2g
(b) ω “ R
g
a
(c) ω “ 2R
3g
(d) ω “ 2R

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

6. What we call a conical pendulum is illustrated below:

θ
T, L

When a mass M is attached to the end of a rod of length L and

insignificant mass that is pivoted to swing from the end of a mechanical pivot, also called a
hub, that rotates at a constant angular frequency ω, as seen in the drawing above. The mass
moves at a constant speed in a circular direction with a constant radius r.
The speed of the particle and the tension in the string respectively are:
?
2r g mgL
(a) Speed pvq “ 1 , T ension pT q “ 1
pL2 `r 2 q 2 pL2 ´r 2 q 2
?
r g
(b) Speed pvq “ 4 ? , T ensionpT q “ ? mgL
pL2 ´r 2 q 2 pL ´r 2 q
?
r 2g
(c) Speed pvq “ 3
? , T ensionpT q “ ?2mgL
pL2 `r 2 q 2 2
pL ´r q

(d) None of the above.

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

7. A standard ride in fairs, also called ”mela” is cylinder with radius R that rotates at some
angular speed ω about its horizontal axis.
When a man is lying on the interior surface of the cylinder, given that the coefficient of friction
between the man and the cylinder is µ, what is the value of ω for which the man does not
slip and remains at rest with regard to the cylinder?
ω

´a ¯ 21
(a) ω ě ?1 g 2 ` g 2 µ2
Rµ
´a ¯ 21
(b) ω ě ?4 g ` g 2 µ2
Rµ
´a ¯ 21
(c) ω ď ?1 g 2 ` g 2 µ2
Rµ
´a ¯ 21
(d) ω ď ?4 g2 ` g2 µ
Rµ

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

Multiple select questions:

1. One famous demonstrations in classical physics is to show off the non-spillage of water from
a bucket when it is rotated in a vertical circular motion.
If a bucket filled with water is whirled around in a vertical circle of radius r. The minimum
speed that must be achieved at the top of the path such that water does not fall out from
the bucket, and if the bucket continues with this same speed for a while, assuming that the
speed remains constant throughout the motion, what is the value of the normal contact force
in terms of mass of the bucket M that the bucket exerts on water at the lowest point of the
path, respectively?
? ´ 2
¯
(a) pvmin qtop “ 2rg, N “ M g ` vr
? ´ 2
¯
(b) pvmin qtop “ 3rg, N “ M g ` vr
? ´ 2
¯
(c) pvmin qtop “ rg, N “ M g ` vr
?
(d) pvmin qtop “ rg, N “ 2M g

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

2. The diagram below illustrates a L ´ cm ´ long rod that is pivoted near one end and is forced
to revolve in a horizontal plane at a constant angular speed ω.
A ball weighing mg ball is suspended by another L ´ cm ´ long thread from the other end of
the rod.
The angular speed of the rotation if the angle θ formed by the string with the vertical is 30o ,
is. Consider the observer to be sitting in an inertial frame of reference.
ω
L

o L
30

mg

b
g tanpθq
(a) ω “ Lp1`sinpθqq
b
g cospθq
(b) ω “ Lpcotpθq`Lsinpθqq
b
g cospθq
(c) ω “ Lpcotpθq`sin2 pθqq
b
g cospθq
(d) ω “ Lpcotpθq`sin2 pθqq

3. In the illustration shown below, you can see a ball of mass m is strung from a vertical rod via
two strings of equal length. The vertical separation between the strings is the same as the
length of the string from which the ball is attached. Let us call this common length, L.
If now, in some experiment, whose purpose is to determine some very specific properties of
the ball, the setup is rotated at an angular velocity ω..
Then,
ω

L m

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

´a b ı
g 2g
(a) For the values of ω between L, L , the tension in the upper string is greater than
the weight of the ball, mg.
(b) In option paq, even though the tension in the upper string is greater than the weight of
the ball, the string remains slack.
b
(c) For ω “ 6g L , the tension in the upper string is twice that of tension in the lower string.

(d) The particle will remain perpendicular to the lower string if ω ď gl .

a

4. If an electron, whose rest mass is known to be 9.1 ˆ 10´31 Kg, and charge 1.6 ˆ 10´19 C.
The electron is treated as a particle moving in a circle with the proton at its centre in the Bohr
model of the hydrogen atom and the proton is supposed to be stationary in an inertial frame.
It is the Coulombic attraction which provides the centripetal force. Based on theoretical data,
in the ground state, the electron circles the proton in a circle with a radius of 5.3 ˆ 10´11 m.
(You may ignore any relativistic effects.)

(a) The speed of the electron in the ground state is 2.2 ˆ 106 m{s.
(b) The flaw in Bohr’s model is that it assumes that it is the Coulombic force that provides
the electron its centre-seeking force, rather, it is the weak nuclear force that does.
(c) The theory of relativity disagrees with the velocity obtained by classically obtaining the
electron’s velocity in orbit. Rather the velocity should be much lower as there is no
power source available to give the electron such high velocities.
(d) None of the above.

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SciAstra Fictitious forces and Circular motion

4.9 Answer keys

Answer Key (SCQs)

1 (a)
2 (b)
3 (d)
4 (d)
5 (a)
6 (b)
7 (a)

Answer Key (MSQs)

1 (c), (d)
2 (a), (d)
3 (a), (b), (c), (d)
4 (a)

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