Acceleration#Tangential and centripetal acceleration

The tangential acceleration (also known as track acceleration ) denotes the rate of change per time. Mass point on a curved path tangential to the latter, undergoes It is the product of the angular acceleration and the curvature radius at the respective path point. Here we consider the example of a circular path.

Considering only the amount of the tangential acceleration, the following applies:

Here, the amount of tangential acceleration, v is the web speed, the angular velocity, r is the radius of the circular path, and the angular acceleration.

The tangential acceleration is not to be confused with the centripetal acceleration, which are not acts tangentially to the circle, but is directed towards the circle center point. The total acceleration is the sum of the vectors of tangential and centripetal acceleration.

The ability to divide the acceleration vector into tangential and normal acceleration Huygens first discovered.

Example

A carousel begins to turn. So it experiences an acceleration. At the same angular acceleration undergoes a person standing close to the rotational axis, a lower tangential acceleration ( smaller distance to the axis of rotation), as a person standing on the outer periphery of the carousel ( larger distance from the rotational axis). The tangential acceleration thus proportional to the radius of the carousel: