What is uniform circular motion? Is this motion accelerated or not? What is the direction of velocity at any point? Give an examples of uniform circular motion.

Uniform circular motion. If a body moves with a uniform speed along a circular path, it is said to be in uniform circular motion.

In uniform circular motion, the direction of velocity changes at every point but its magnitude remains constant. Hence, it is an example of accelerated motion. The direction of velocity at any point of the circular path is along the tangent at that point as shown in Fig. 8.41.

Examples : (i) A cyclist moving along a circular track at constant speed.

(ii) Motion of the moon around the earth.

(iii) Motion of a satellite in circular orbit around the earth.

(iv) Motion of a stone being rotated at the end of a string.