Movement Around a Curve

You may recall from the kinematics module that an object traveling around a curve experiences an acceleration directed toward the center of the curve. If the curve is an arc of a circle, then the size of this acceleration is equal to the velocity squared divided by the radius of curvature of the circle:

From Newton’s Second Law, we can multiply by mass to find the size of the force needed to produce this acceleration.

The key to a successful run is the push/paddle phase in the beginning and how well they coordinate their weight shift throughout the course. Among the best sliders, the winners and losers are separated by thousandths of a second (0.001 s).