I want to know how a body moves on a circular track.
Suppose a car enters a circular path.
If I don't turn my steering wheel, then the car would travel in straight line and perpendicular to the radius of the circular park.
In the second case I turn my steering wheel to enter into the circular path at that very moment.
I think the tires would have pushed the ground and the ground would have pushed the tires back (friction force) to enter into the path.
Now I must keep the steering wheel at that position to be in the circle, but on the contrary from every person I ask about the direction of friction, they tell me its towards the center.
Why is only part of friction in the 'play' is that it gives reaction to action.
So Why is the frictional force acting towards center.
[Physics] In which direction does the friction act in a circular motion
centripetal-forceforcesfree-body-diagramfrictionnewtonian-mechanics
Related Solutions
Friction forces act as a response, and opposite, to velocity, not force (that would be normal forces).
The car has a liner velocity in the forward direction, and it keeps moving indefinitely, ignoring any residual friction. Then, if the steering wheel is turned left, the front tires are rotated to the left, thus there appears a frictional force perpendicular to those tires. This force is caused by the tires resisting the movement, just as any other friction. The interesting thing is that tires can rotate freely only in one direction, but not in the perpendicular. Thus the friction appears only in that non-rotating direction.
This force will point not perpendicular to the car, but perpendicular to the tires. The difference is small, since the actual angle that the tires are rotated is quite small, particularly at high speeds. Also, once the car is rotated from the straight line, a small lateral friction will appear also in the back tires, because the velocity will no longer be aligned with the axis of the tires.
before attempt to turn, there was kinetic friction force only.
Where do you think you have kinetic friction? Kinetic friction is found when you have two surfaces sliding against each other. The tire-road interface is not sliding, so it is static friction, both before and during a turn.
During acceleration, the force of the tire on the road is rearward, so the reaction force of the road on the tire is forward. The only difference in the turn is that the frictional force is directed sideways instead.
If the forces between the tire and the road exceed the maximum static friction, then the tire will skid rather than roll.
Best Answer
Think of this:
The car wants to just continue straight. When you turn the wheels to the left, they can't roll along with the car motion. Which way would the friction act, if the car still continued straight ahead so that the turned wheels would be sliding aber the asphalt?
The friction is of course backwards. To stop the motion. There is a friction component perpendicular to the turned wheels. And it is not balanced. This is a force that pushes inwards on the circle that is about to be formed.
Now, if you only turn your wheels gradually, sliding will never occur. The perpendicular component will appear when slight turning starts, and it will be static friction. Turning the wheels gradually and not too fast makes it possible to keep this static friction. It is still perpendicular. And thus the car is turned.
This is inwards friction. Static friction. If your wheels roll rather than sliding, then there is no parallel friction any more. Only the perpendicular component is present and it causes the constant direction change - the turning.