Asked by christian

A centripetal force causes circular motion because it accelerates an object

toward the center of a circle, which changes the direction of motion but not the speed.
toward the center of a circle, which changes the speed of motion but not the direction.
along the edge of a circle, which changes the direction of motion but not the speed.
along the edge of a circle, which changes the speed of motion but not the direction.

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
toward the center of a circle, which changes the direction of motion but not the speed.

Explanation: centripetal force (and resulting centripetal acceleration) is directed perpendicular to the instantaneous velocity, so it bends the path into a circle without doing work on the object — it changes the direction of velocity but not its magnitude (for uniform circular motion).