Uniform circular motion and gravitation

This course is a part of AP®︎ Physics 1, a 12-course Topic series from Khan Academy.

Why do things move in circles? Learn about centripetal acceleration, centripetal force, and Newton's law of gravitation.

This course contains 4 segments:

Uniform circular motion introduction

In this lesson, we will learn how to describe the motion of objects moving in a circle using angular motion variables such as angular velocity and angular displacement.

Centripetal acceleration

Is something moving in a circle at a constant speed accelerating? If so, in what direction? In this lesson, we'll consider centripetal acceleration in more detail.

Centripetal forces

Learn how to identify centripetal forces and how they relate to speed, tension, normal force, and radius.

Newton's law of gravitation

Why does the earth orbit the sun (or does it)? Gravitation defines our everyday life and the structure of the universe. This tutorial will introduce gravity in the Newtonian sense.