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All kids have experienced the centrifugal force while riding on a merry-go-round, being in a car that goes around a curve, or making a sharp turn on a bike. It's a very real thing to kids. Ride your bike too fast around a curve and you are likely to skid and have a painful fall. Yet, the centrifugal force is an enigma. It's not one of the fundamental forces, such as gravity and the electric force. Mathematically, it shows up in frames that rotate along with the merry-go-round or the car that goes around a curve. But, when the same situation is examined from a stationary frame, such as the ground, it does not exist. How can this be? |
In this article we will explore the condition under which centrifugal force exists. We will distinguish between fundamental and inertial forces, introduce inertial and rotating reference frames, develop a descriptive understanding of centrifugal force, and present a rigorous mathematical derivation of this force in rotating reference frames starting with Newton's second law. As a bonus, we will obtain an expression for the Coriolis force. We'll conclude with some thoughts about what we can learn from analyzing events from more than one perspective. |