Circular Motion/Centripetal Force for new MCAT

[banana_phone]

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I am doing TBR study review and am currently going over circular motion and centripetal force. I know these topics were de-emphasized and no longer show up on the content outline. However, I also have the TPR books and my 2016 Princeton Physics Review book still covers the topics, and these were released only about 4 weeks ago, so Princeton seems to think the topic is still worth covering.

Question is: is it worth the brain power/time to memorize the circular motion equations (I realize they are pretty similar to the linear motion ones...) and should I spend a lot of time on this material or focus elsewhere? Can people who have taken the new MCAT give advice here?

 

[theonlytycrane]

Is there a particular application that's troubling you? Just know Fc = mv^2/2 for uniform circular motion

 

[banana_phone]

Is there a particular application that's troubling you? Just know Fc = mv^2/2 for uniform circular motion

No, it's not troubling me, I just don't want to waste brain-space on equations that are no longer tested...but since it seems like a grey area, I'll go ahead and memorize that one! Thanks

 

[Altius Premier Tutor]

If I can say this tactfully...because PR or Kaplan or anyone else still has it in their "up to date" prep books isn't always a great indicator that it is still worth studying. I could point out many things in the major prep books that will NEVER be on MCAT-2015 and I'd bet the farm on it (wrt to both topics and passages/question types). Centripetal force and circular motion will not be on MCAT-2015 unless it is in the most unique of all circumstances. It would have to be in some context where you could justifiably intuit EVERYTHING needed from the passage, or maybe a question that looked like it was testing circular motion/centripetal force but which could be dealt with using basic linear motion principles.