A car is driving around a curve that can be approximated as being circular. In which direction does the centripetal force point? in the direction of motion towards the center of the circle tangential to the circle perpendicular to the plane of the circle away from the center of the circle The centripetal force (????C) of an object can be calculated using the equation ????C=m????2???? where m is the object's mass, ???? is the object's velocity, and ???? is the radius of the circle. If the radius of the circle changes by a factor of 0.25 , the force changes by a factor of

The centripetal force or center seeking force always points to the center of the circle. While the velocity acts at a tangent to the circle making it perpendicular to the centripetal force.

Given that:

C= mv2/r where m is the mass of the object

v the velocity of the object

r is the radius of the circle

C is the centripetal force.

when we change the radius of the circle by a factor of 0.25. The centripetal force changes by a factor of 4 .

Since the radius of the circle is inversely proportional to the centripetal force as shown below:

C = mv2/r

We can assume that m= 10 v= 2 r=2 and that the mass and the velocity remain constant after the radius changes .

Before we change r by a factor of 0.25 we have

C= 10(2)2/2 = 20

After the change and substituting into the formula we have C =10(2)2/2(0.25) = 80

Therefore, we can see that C has quadrupled that is it has changed by a factor of 4 .