Sunday night, 11:49pm. I'm sitting at home, studying my physics notes as I do every night, when I suddenly realize we have a blog due. Panic mode commence. I frantically search my humble abode for signs of circular motion. None to be found. I curl up I my bed, about ready to accept defeat, when suddenly a bikini hits me in the face. I stare up angrily at my fan where I had hung my bikini earily today so it could dry. So there I am, looking at the rotating fan blades, when I suddenly realize I am staring straight into the eyes of circular motion. I said a quick prayer to the physics gods for blessing me with the perfect example of cirular motion despite my procrastination as I took this video of my fan. In this video I turned the speed of my fan up so that the other bikinis I was drying on my fan flew off as well. Because it is on a high speed, it has higher centripetal accleration than it did when it was roatating slower because centripetal accleration = velocity squared / radius. The radius of the fan is constant during every speed so as the velocity increase or decreases, so does the centripetal acceleration. The centripetal force that was keeping the bikinis on the fan blades was friction. Centripetal force is equal to (mass)(centripetal acceleration). As the velocity increased, so did centripetal accleration untill mac was greater than the centripetal force which was keeping the bikinis in circular motion. The bikinis flew off in a path the was tangent to the circle. Thanks to physics I know to keep my fan on a low speed so that I dont get hit with things flying off my fan when their centriptal acceleration becomes too great.
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