What is tangential velocity?

1 Answer
Apr 18, 2016

The velocity working as a rotational or circular motion and touching only at one point is called as tangential velocity.

Explanation:

Take for example a bi-cycle:

When you are driving a bi-cycle the wheels are performing rotational motion. But the wheels are only touching the ground at one point only.

This above example shows that there is tangential velocity.

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In circular motion, take this example:

You have tied a stone with a string (The good old string- stone example). You start to give it a motion in a circular orbit. At any instant or in very short time, on the imaginary orbit the stone is touching only a single point.

This is known as the tangential velocity in a circular motion.

That also how our planets revolves around the sun, the satellites revolves around the planets, etc.

The image shows that the planet has tangential velocity around the sun.