123: Centrifugal Force
| Centrifugal Force |
 Title text: You spin me right round baby, right round, in a manner depriving me of an inertial reference frame. Baby. |
Explanation
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.
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 bicycle: if you are going fast and do not brake, only the friction of the air, tires and internals of the bike will slow you down if you are not going uphill.
Now ride your bike on a circular track, at considerable speed. You will feel the "centrifugal" force, which is actually a centripetal force that 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 subtracted, 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 inertial system.
Transcript
- [James Bond is strapped to a giant wheel suspended from the ceiling. Black hat is standing next to two levers.]
- Black hat: How do you like my centrifuge, mister Bond? When I throw this lever, you will feel centrifugal force crush every bone in your body.
- [Same scene, but a closer shot.]
- Bond: You mean centripetal force. There's no such thing as centrifugal force.
- Black hat: A laughable claim, mister Bond, perpetuated by overzealous teachers of science. Simply construct Newton's laws in a rotating system and you will see a centrifugal force term appear as plain as day.
- [Closer shot, only Bond's head is visible.]
- Bond: Come now, do you really expect me to do coordinate substitution in my head while strapped to a centrifuge?
- Black hat: No, mister Bond. I expect you to die.
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