Science Common Sense

1260 - What is circular motion.

Imagine you're holding a ball on a string and spinning it around you. As you spin the ball, it doesn't fly off in a straight line, but instead keeps moving in a circle around your hand. This is called circular motion.

In circular motion, an object moves in a circle around a fixed point, called the center. The object is constantly changing direction as it moves around the center, but it always stays the same distance away from it.

Think of things that move in circular motion, like a merry-go-round, a spinning top, or even the Earth moving around the Sun!