Centrifugal force (disambiguation)

In classical mechanics, centrifugal force (from Latin "centrum" "center" and "fugere" "to flee") can mean:

* in everyday understanding, "centrifugal force" is used to describe the effects of inertia that tend to move an object away from the center of a circle it is rotating about
* Physics: from the viewpoint of an observer in a rotating reference frame, Centrifugal force (rotating reference frame) is an apparent force that seems to push a body away from the axis of rotation of the frame and is a consequence of the body's mass and the frame's angular rate of rotation.
* Physics: from the point of view of a non-inertial observer of a moving particle in planar motion, centrifugal force is an apparent force acting on the moving particle in a direction away from an axis selected by the observer. Two common non-inertial frames for observation are the co-rotating frame (in which the particle momentarily appears to have only radial motion) and the local frame (in which the particle appears stationary). Both are described in Centrifugal force (planar motion).
* Physics: In circular motion, the reactive centrifugal force is a real force applied "by" the accelerating body that is equal and opposite to the centripetal force that is acting "on" the accelerating body.
* Physics: In polar coordinates, the term $mr\; dot\; \{\; heta\}^2$ (overdot = time derivative) in the expression for the radial component of acceleration of a particle of mass "m" at position ("r(t)", "θ(t)").

ee also

* centripetal force - the real force that acts on a body to curve its motion