Why is that the normal acceleration,a(n) in curvilinear motion not the real acceleration ?

Question

In school , I knew that the force acts towards centre and hence the acc^n. But now in uni , you found the accceleration using the square root of the squares of a(t) and a(n)-tangent(t) and normal(n) rspectively. Why is this ?

Answer 1

Well, in curvilinear motion, the acceleration of an object in circular motion is only the centripetal motion, if THE OBJECT'S TANGENTIAL VELOCITY REMAINS CONSTANT. But if the object's tangential (linear velocity) is also changing in magnitude, then you will have two independent accelerations acting perpendicular to each other: the (1) centripetal acceleration, which causes the object to change direction, and a (2) tangential acceleration which causes the object to increase or decrease the magnitude of its tangential velocity. Using vector addition, the resultant acceleration then would be the square root of the sum of the squares of the two acceleration rates.

Hope I explained it well.

Answer 2

http://em-ntserver.unl.edu/negahban/em373/note3/note3.htm

look at the drawings at the link there you see you are on a curve and at every point you have a different acceleration. Here your coordinate frame is no more rectengular coordinates( x-y) instead one is always tangent to the curve that you are on... Means still you are finding two acceleration but at a different coordinate frame... These are the counterparts of horizontal and vertical accelerations...

Answer 3

All acceleration would be radial except there's a "velocity" substitute led to by ability of the air and the kinetic friction. those are dealt with by ability of trouble-free equating "air tension" + "kinetic friction" = mass * acceleration.