We all know that centrifugal force exists don’t we? It’s the outward force on an object traveling in a circle. Pretty hard to deny it exists when we’ve all felt it every time we go around a tight turn in a car.
Except it really doesn’t exist, and you can prove it to yourself. Take a small object and tie a string to it. Then swing it in a circle (hey if you’re actually going to do this don’t go berserk and hurt someone or yourself). Now that you have the object swinging around in a circle, ask yourself this question; are you pushing on the string or pulling on it? You are pulling on it of course, you can’t push something around through a string. What happens when you suddenly let go (safety precautions again of course, and if you break a window or hit someone I am not responsible). As soon as you stop pulling on the string (applying an inward, not outward force) the object will fly off in a straight line. No more force inward, no more going in a circle.
But the fact is it feels like there is an outward force when the car goes around a tight corner. What is actually happening is that your body has momentum and is trying to go in a straight line. What you are feeling is your momentum as the car starts to move sideways underneath you. You’re not being thrown up against the side of the car. The side of the car is moving over and pushing on you to make you go in a circle too. The force it applies is called centripetal force.
Many thanks for sharing this great advice here.
I agree, it’s I like, probably in the future …
I never thought of it that way, well put!
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Why don’t you send this to Wikipedia!
The spinning action of the ball will not keep spinning if you let go of the string, thats not centifugal force. Its the spinning action of the ball from a stand still, that moves the ball up towards the sky perpendicular to your hand that is doing the spinning, would be the centrifugal force! The ball out weighs the string, so of course it will not keep spinning, look at an Australian Boomer Rang it has equal weight on either side so it will spin!
The two don’t equate. The boomerang spins about itz centre of gravity. The weight going around in a circle attached to the end of a string is circling the point at which the string is held down. You can swing it in the horizontal plane, or the vertical plane, or anything in between, but the moment that you let go that string (thus removing the force pulling the weight to the centre of the circle) the weight simply travels off in a straight line tangential to the circle. Force having been removed, the weight travels in a straight line. What was the force in the first place? When you were swinging the weight around in a circle, were you pushing on it (centrifugal) or pulling on it (centripetal)?
SIMPLY CONSTRUCT NEWTONS LAWS IN A ROTATING SYSTEM AND YOU WILL SEE A CENTRIFUGAL FORCE TERM APPEAR AS PLAIN AS DAY. To transform equations to a subsystem, everything inherent to the system as a whole must be subtracted, including the centripetal forces, which leaves a centrifugal force on the other side of the equation. While the centripetal force is universal, the centrifugal force is bound to the specific inertial system.
I cannot believe that folk are actually arguing this common sense. The constructs they put together in argument is mind blowing and a direct analogy to the arguments one encounters against atheism.
If anyone ever argues this with me in person, I will slap him and claim/blame centrifugal force on his part.
[REPLY TO THIS ONE FOR ME TO GET IT IN MY EMAIL.]
I cannot believe that folk are actually arguing this common sense. The constructs they put together in argument is mind blowing and a direct analogy to the arguments one encounters against atheism.
If anyone ever argues this with me in person, I will slap him and claim/blame centrifugal force on his part.