Centripetal acceleration refers to the acceleration that causes any object to take a turn, or move along a circular path and it is also referred to as radial acceleration. The major difference between centripetal acceleration and tangential acceleration is that centripetal acceleration occurs due to the change in the direction of tangential velocity whereas tangential acceleration occurs because of any change in the magnitude of tangential velocity. Also, the tangential acceleration vector is tangential to the circle whereas in the case of centripetal acceleration, the vectors point towards the center of the circle, that is, radially inwards.