Can an object move in a circular path without being accelerated?

Answer 1

"yes move a remote controle car on a patch of low friction ground and move it in a

circle. basic physics"

I believe the answer above is not true. Newton's first law (basic physics) states:

Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of

motion unless an external force is applied to it.

A circular path is not a uniform motion. Moving a car around in a circle means that

it is being accelerated towards the center of the circle. If you could do the above

experiment under perfect "frictionless circomstances" then the toy car would

eventuall come to a stop, without using the brakes (provided the car is not being

propelled forward by its engine).

I'm no scientist, but I do not think it is possible for an object to move in a circular

path without having to accelerate it towards the center of the circle, unless you

can somehow bend time-space (like gravity does).

When an object is moving in a circular path, it's constantly changing it's direction.

thus the velocity is changing. Change is velocity states that the object is accelerating.

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The problem that everybody above this line is having is: They're trying to stay

consistent with the universally held but mistaken idea that 'acceleration' means

'speeding up'. It doesn't !

'Acceleration' means 'any change in speed or direction of motion'. That could mean

speeding up, slowing down, starting out from a stop, rolling to a stop on grass, or

moving along any path that's not a straight line. They're all 'acceleration'.

An object moving in a circular path is constantly changing its direction of motion,

so there's acceleration there. An object can not move in a circular path without

acceleration, because the very bending of the path away from a straight line is

acceleration. Regardless of what's happening or not happening to its speed.

Answer 2

No, according to Newton's first law of motion, an object will only move in a straight line at a constant speed unless acted upon by an external force. In the case of an object moving in a circular path, it is constantly changing its direction, which requires acceleration towards the center of the circle to maintain that path.