By Walter Lewin | Physics I: Classical Mechanics Lecture 5 of 35
This lecture is about uniform circular motion. There is a constant radial acceleration (centripetal acceleration) but constant tangential speed. Professor Lewin uses himself as an example, sitting on a chair bolted to a fast rotating turntable feeling the push and pull of centripetal force. He continues with discussion of the motion of the planets around the sun, with respect to gravitational pull, and the idea behind a centrifuge and a salad spinner. He concludes with a demonstration that emphasizes centripetal acceleration, spinning a buck of water fast enough that the water will put even when upside down. To be on the safe side, bring an umbrella to class!
This course is a first-semester freshman physics class in Newtonian Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, and Kinetic Gas Theory. In addition to the basic concepts a variety of interesting topics are covered in this course: Binary Stars, Neutron Stars, Black Holes, Resonance Phenomena, Musical Instruments, Stellar Collapse, Supernovae, Astronomical observations from very high flying balloons (lecture 35), and you will be allowed a peek into the intriguing Quantum World.
