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9Circular Motion
9.1Conceptual Framework for Circular Motion
I now live fifteen minutes from Disneyland, so my friends and family in
my native Northern California think it’s a little strange that I’ve never
visited the Magic Kingdom again since a childhood trip to the south. The
truth is that for me as a preschooler, Disneyland was not the Happiest Place
on Earth. My mother took me on a ride in which little cars shaped like
rocket ships circled rapidly around a central pillar. I knew I was going to
die. There was a force trying to throw me outward, and the safety features
of the ride would surely have been inadequate if I hadn’t screamed the
whole time to make sure Mom would hold on to me. Afterward, she
seemed surprisingly indifferent to the extreme danger we had experienced.
Section 9.1Conceptual Framework for Circular Motion