Banked Curved Forces

Question:

bject: Banked Curved Forces

I am a high school student currently takeing Physics 20 in Canada, and i need to know if you can help me with a few things. I am currently reaserching on how a vehicle moves in a circle, and how a banked curve will affect it. I have done some searching on the net but havent come up with anything, but i have a hypothesis on how it might work.

When the car moves around on a banked curve, the parallel force of the angle of the bank is added to the centrifugal force of the car.

This is just a guess by me and im wondering if you can correct or verify my hypothesis?

Answer:

Hi Donavin,

You have the right idea. You can think of the weight of the car being partitioned by the angle of bank into a force parallel to the surface and one perpendicular to it. The force perpendicular to the surface adds to the normal force holding the tires on the pavement and the force parallel to the surface has a component toward the center of the curve that contributes to changing the direction of the car. On a flat track all the centripetal force would have to be provided by the friction of the tires on the pavement.

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