After some road work, an intersection is now safer for drivers. The only alteration made was to increase the radius of the turn the cars make when turning right. This makes the turn safer because of the principles of circular motion, which state: Fc=(mv^2)/r In this equation, Fc is the magnitude of the force of friction a car's tires need to keep the car moving in circular motion. If this force is greater than the force of friction between the car's tires and the road, it car will skid out of control. To minimize this risk, the radius of the turn must be made as large as possible to decrease the amount of friction needed for the car to stay in the turn. This is because in the formula, The frictional force (Fc) is inversely proportional to the radius of the turn, meaning that as the radius gets larger, the frictional force gets smaller. This is especially important in winter when there could be ice one the road. The coefficient of friction between tires and ice is much less than between tires and asphalt, meaning that a car with the same weight will not exert as much frictional force on ice as it would on dry asphalt. The radius must be even larger to reduce the chance that a car could slide off of the road in icy conditions.
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Zach Pabisis a high school junior writing about his adventures in physics. Archives
April 2019
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