An Observation of a Circular Motion using Ordinary Appliances: Train Toy, Digital Camera, and Android based Smartphone

Using a digital camera (Sony DSC-S75) in its video mode and a smartphone (Samsung GT-N700) equipped with an acceleration sensor, observation of a uniform circular motion of a toy train (Thomas & Friends, Player World, CCF No. 2277-13) is conducted. From the first observation average centripetal acceleration about 0.154 m/s2 is obtained, while the second gives 0.350 m/s2 of average centripetal acceleration by assuming ideal condition, where measured accelerations in z direction is not interpreted.