Under what circumstances,if any, can an object move in a circular path without being accelerated? Explain.?

Question

Under what circumstances,if any, can an object move in a circular path without being accelerated? Explain.?

Answer 1

A satilite circulating round a planet is said to be in free-fall. This means that there is no acceleration on it because the gravitational forces are exactly balanced by the centrifugal ones due to the circular motion.

Whether you consider the gravitational acceleration field to be locally balanced by the inertial forces of the motion I don't know, its one of semantics. But if not then your question is answered by it being impossible.

The acceleration forces that the mass of the satilite experiences are virtually nil (with the possibile exception of spinning and tidal force effects due to flexible and liquid parts of the satilite having some freedom for local displacement) and so too is the acceleration in this sense.

Answer 2

acceleration - a change in SPEED or DIRECTION or BOTH

in a circular path, there is always a change in direction, so no object moving in circles can be considered not accelerating.

Answer 3

A planet in orbit around a star fits this scenario, its forward speed remains constant if its orbit is circular.

Answer 4

orbits under the influence of gravitatioinal pull

Answer 5

Since the object is moving in a circular path, it is constantly changing direction. Since acceleration is defined as a change in speed and/or direction, an object moving in a circular path (even if at a constant speed) is still acceleration because it is changing direction.

Answer 6

Acceleration is a vector quantity that specifies the time rate of change of velocity or the change that occurs in an object's speed or direction in a certain period of time.

As acceleration is a vector this statment can't happen as this object must change it's direction.