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In this activity you will go outside and observer the conditions needed for circular motion.
Equipment
tennis ball
stocking/panty hose
This needs to be done outside and you need to take care of your surroundings...
Task 1. Set the ball rotating around your head. At any instant in time which direction if the tension force acting?
Task 2. While the the ball is spinning pull the stocking through your hands so the radius gets smaller. What happens to the speed of the ball?
Task 3. While the ball is spinning, release the ball. In which direction does it travel? (take care not to hit observers or passes by!)
Draw a diagram task 3 imagining you are looking from above. Show the trajectory of the ball as you release it.
Questions.
1. If a charged particle is to be made to spin in a cyclotron or synchrotron, what direction must the force (net force) be acting to keep its trajectory? This is known as the centripetal force
2. For uniform circular motion, the following relationship is used to describe the centripetal force is
Use this relationship to explain your observations in task 2
3. Use your result form task 3 to explain why the beam lines of a synchrotron tangential to the circle of a synchrotron?
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