Acceleration of an object in a circular path?

Why does an object travelling in a circular path at a constant speed is always accelerating towards the centre





I just need a simple non complicated explanation please.Acceleration of an object in a circular path?
To understand this, it is essential to understand the difference between speed and velocity. Speed has size, but no direction. It is a scalar quantity. Acceleration has both size (magnitude) and direction. It is a vector quantity.





A vector quantity changes when either its size or its direction changes. When an object is travelling round a circle, the direction of its velocity is changing constantly, as the velocity is always directed along a tangent of the circle.





Look at the first diagram on this web page:


http://www.geocities.com/mileswmathis/av鈥?/a>





As the velocity changes from vector CB to vector BA, the change in its velocity is represented by the diagonal of the parallelogram with three of its vertices at A, B and C. That is directed towards the centre of the circle, and hence that is the direction of the acceleration for uniform circular motion.Acceleration of an object in a circular path?
I would add that the word ';acceleration'; is actually a very poor word for it. When we use the word ';acceleration'; we generally think of something speeding up. But in this case the object is no more speed up then slowing down. ';acceleration'; actually means 'the rate of change of velocity'; and velocity is a vector quantity.





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