A car is traveling around a circular track with a radius of 100 meters at a constant speed of 20 m/s. Calculate the car's acceleration and the direction of the acceleration vector.
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To calculate the car's acceleration, we can use the equation for centripetal acceleration:
a = v^2 / r
where a is the acceleration, v is the velocity, and r is the radius of the circular track. Plugging in the given values:
a = (20 m/s)^2 / 100 m
= 400 m^2/s^2 / 100 m
= 4 m/s^2
The car's acceleration is 4 m/s^2.
The centripetal acceleration vector always points towards the center of the circular path. In this case, since the direction of the acceleration is not specified, we assume it to be in the positive x-direction. Therefore, the direction of the acceleration vector is towards the center of the circular track.