Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The apparent force, equal and opposite to the centripetal force, drawing a rotating body away from the center of rotation, caused by the inertia of the body.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun in everyday understanding, centrifugal force is the effect that tends to move an object away from the center of a circle it is rotating about (a consequence of
inertia ). - noun physics : In a rotating reference frame, the
apparent force that seems to push all bodies away from thecentre ofrotation of the frame and is a consequence of the body'smass and the frame'sangular speed . It works in conjunction with theCoriolis force to give correct motion. - noun physics : In circular motion, the 'reactive' centrifugal force is a real force applied by the accelerating body that is
equal andopposite to thecentripetal force that is acting on the accelerating body. - noun physics : In polar coordinates, the apparent radial force that acts away from the center and is a consequence of the body's
angular speed around the origin.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the outward force on a body moving in a curved path around another body
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lampbane commented on the word centrifugal force
There's no such thing.
November 17, 2007