Difference between revisions of "123: Centrifugal Force"
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| − | In this comic, Black Hat has strapped | + | In this comic, Black Hat has strapped [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bond James Bond] to a centrifuge and claims the centrifugal force will be lethal. Bond objects that there is no such thing, but just centripetal force. He is right, as I will explain later on. |
| − | The first important term is Newtonian mechanics. Issac Newton was the first to announce that any body will be in a stable state of motion iff ( | + | The first important term is Newtonian mechanics. Issac Newton was the first to announce that any body will be in a stable state of motion iff ([http://xkcd.com/1033 if and only if]) no force is applied. No motion at all is a stable state, as is constant translation. Imagine yourself on a bycycle: if you are going fast and do not brake, only the friction of the air, tires and internal to the bike will slow you down if you are not going uphill. |
If you park your bike upside down an spin the frontwheel, it would spin forever if not for friction as well - that spin is another stable state. | If you park your bike upside down an spin the frontwheel, it would spin forever if not for friction as well - that spin is another stable state. | ||
Revision as of 15:25, 27 August 2012
In this comic, Black Hat has strapped James Bond to a centrifuge and claims the centrifugal force will be lethal. Bond objects that there is no such thing, but just centripetal force. He is right, as I will explain later on.
The first important term is Newtonian mechanics. Issac Newton was the first to announce that any body will be in a stable state of motion iff (if and only if) no force is applied. No motion at all is a stable state, as is constant translation. Imagine yourself on a bycycle: if you are going fast and do not brake, only the friction of the air, tires and internal to the bike will slow you down if you are not going uphill. If you park your bike upside down an spin the frontwheel, it would spin forever if not for friction as well - that spin is another stable state.
Now ride your bike on a circular track, at considerable speed. You will feel the "centrifugal" force, which is acutally a centripetal forcethat you are applying to leave your straight course. That is what moving along an orbit really is: constantly changing the direction of movement, which needs a constant force.
Black Hat argues that within a spinning inertial system, "centrifugal" force is real. Here is why: to transform equations to a subsystem, everything inherent to the system as a whole must be substracted, including the centripetal forces, which leaves a centrifugal force on the other side of the equation. Wikipedia hints that while the centripetal force is universal, the centrifugal force is bound to the specific inertal system.
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