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What is centrifugal force?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

Janet Jagger  and
Kevi Lord
Janet Jagger
Affiliation:
Trinity and All Saints College, Brownberrie Lane, Horsforth, Leeds LS18 5HD
Kevi Lord
Affiliation:
Trinity and All Saints College, Brownberrie Lane, Horsforth, Leeds LS18 5HD
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Extract

The subject of centrifugal force comes up at all of our mechanics INSET meetings and it seems that it continues to be a problem when we teach circular motion. Consider the problem of the conical pendulum. The forces acting on the bob are its weight and the tension as shown in Figure 1:

Frequently students put a force outwards in addition to these forces and label it the centrifugal force (or mrω2). It is undeniably true that the lay person (and therefore perhaps all of us at an intuitive level?) feels that this force is there and this is presumably why it appears on force diagrams; after all, it seems quite natural, ‘how else does the bob remain out at an angle if not held by an outwards force?’

Type
Articles
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 79 , Issue 486 , November 1995 , pp. 484 - 488
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 1995

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References

1. Savage, M. D. Centrifugal force: fact or fiction? Mathematics in School, 17 (May 1988) pp. 32–35.Google Scholar
2. Williams, J. S. On the ‘experience’ of centrifugal force and other inertial forces, Mathematics in School, 17 (November 1988).Google Scholar
3. Borowski, E. J. and Borwein, J. M. Dictionary of Mathematics, Collins Reference (1989).Google Scholar