Dot product of acceleration and velocity

[putongren]

Just wondering...

If the dot product of the acceleration and velocity vectors is zero, then does v²/r = 0 have to be true?

If this is true, is it possible to prove it? If the statement is false, is it possible to prove that as well?

 

[putongren]

I guess what I'm saying is that if the dot product of the acceleration and velocity vectors is zero (like in circular motion), does that imply v²/r?

 

[mfb]

v^2/r=0 implies v^2=0 and that implies v=0. However, $a \cdot v = 0$ just means that a and v are orthogonal to each other, v can be different from 0. It also implies that v^2 is constant: $\frac{dv^2}{dt}=0$.

Where do you see any r here? A circular motion is just a special case of $a \cdot v = 0$.

 

[TobyC]

I'm not completely sure what you mean here, but I'm going to take it to mean this: If the acceleration and velocity are perpendicular, does the acceleration have to equal v^2/r as it does in circular motion?

I think the answer is yes, sort of, but you have to first ask what r means if the motion is not a circle. You could say it is the radius of curvature at the point in question, which is like saying it is the radius of the circular path that we imagine the particle is instantaneously traveling along. But how would you find this radius of curvature? Well if the particle were to continue along a circular path with the speed it has at the instant in question, then its acceleration would obey the usual v^2/r, so rearranging tells you that the radius of curvature is the speed squared divided by the magnitude of the acceleration. So yes the acceleration can be written as v^2/r but that statement is really just a definition of r, the radius of curvature, it is true by definition, it doesn't need a proof.

 

[PJC01]

The dot product of acceleration and velocity is a mathematical operation that results in a scalar quantity representing the magnitude of the component of the velocity vector in the direction of the acceleration vector. If the dot product is zero, it means that the two vectors are perpendicular to each other, and there is no component of velocity in the direction of acceleration.

In this case, v^2/r does not necessarily have to be zero. This quantity represents the centripetal acceleration, which is the acceleration towards the center of a curved path. Even if the dot product is zero, there may still be a non-zero centripetal acceleration.

Whether the statement is true or false can be proven by using mathematical equations and principles, such as the equation for centripetal acceleration and the definition of dot product. However, it is important to note that the dot product of acceleration and velocity being zero does not necessarily mean that v^2/r is also zero. It is possible for the two quantities to be unrelated or for v^2/r to have a non-zero value.