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Circular motion

How do you explain why a car skids of the road when it travels at high speed at a curve or roundabout in an a level physics explanation and what does banking do?
Original post by miya2905
How do you explain why a car skids of the road when it travels at high speed at a curve or roundabout in an a level physics explanation and what does banking do?


What do you think would happen if the road was perfectly smooth and you attempted to turn?
Reply 2
Original post by quagmiretoilet
What do you think would happen if the road was perfectly smooth and you attempted to turn?

It would be hard to turn as there is no friction
Original post by miya2905
It would be hard to turn as there is no friction


Yes, and without friction the tyres would not be able to apply force in the opposite direction to that of motion and the back end of your vehicle would slip, causing sliding. The coefficient of friction determines the friction force given a particular road surface material. A rough surface will have a higher coefficient of friction as there will be a higher overall frictional force when the tyres exert force on the road surface. When the frictional force is exceeded, that causes skidding as the tyres slip due to the unbalanced forces. This turning force is what is known as torque.
(edited 7 months ago)
Reply 4
Original post by quagmiretoilet
Yes, and without friction the tyres would not be able to apply force in the opposite direction to that of motion and the back end of your vehicle would slip, causing sliding. The coefficient of friction determines the friction force given a particular road surface material. A rough surface will have a higher coefficient of friction as there will be a higher overall frictional force when the tyres exert force on the road surface. When the frictional force is exceeded, that causes skidding as the tyres slip due to the unbalanced forces. This turning force is what is known as torque.

I understand that but our physics teacher was mentioning something about limiting velocity to do with this how does that relate to this
Reply 5
Original post by miya2905
I understand that but our physics teacher was mentioning something about limiting velocity to do with this how does that relate to this


In order to turn the car a centripetal force from the road acts on the car.
On a flat road the force is entirely due to friction between the tyres and road surface. if the frictional force is insufficient to provide the required centripetal force the car will begin to skid.
On a banked road there is a component of the normal reaction force pointing towards the centre in addition to the frictional force. This allows cars to go around a banked curve at a greater speed than they could on a flat curve.

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