Crash!

At the end of summer, my brother got into a car accident. And this crash actually totaled our car. Luckily he did not get hurt, but I realized that his crash was physics related. He was on a freeway on-ramp in Aiea. This on-ramp was sort of like a loop (i think it was like 270 degrees). As he was turning, his car skidded and hit the railing. Apparently, many people had crashed in the same place before and there was many skid marks on the ground. (Someone five minutes before my brother had done the exact same thing!) This accident has to do with centripetal acceleration and centripetal force. Centripetal acceleration is the change in direction in a circular motion, and so velcoity is never constant. (centripetal acceleration = v squared/r) Centripetal force is the force that causes the circular motion and force is always directed toward the center. (centripetal force = m(v squared)/r) Centripetal force can represent different things in different situations. For example, centripetal force can represent the normal force, friction, or a combination of both. In my brother's example, the centripetal force was friction, but with the evidence of skid marks, it can be concluded that there wasn't enough friction, so there was not enough centripetal force to keep him in a circular path, which ultimately resulted in his crash. Also, his speed could have also contributed to the crash because in the centripetal force equation, a higher velocity directly results in a higher centripetal force required to stay in a circular motion.