Centrifugal force facts for kids

This is the force that acts on the body in a direction away from the centre, which contributes to making the body try to fly away. When you hold a rope with a heavy object attached to it, and rotate it around, the rope becomes tight and keeps the body from flying away. This is caused by centripetal force.

In physics, centrifugal force (from Latin centrum "center" and fugere "to flee") is a fictitious force that appears when describing physics in a rotating reference frame; it acts on anything with mass considered in such a frame. Centrifugal force is fictitious because although it may feel to a person like a certain force is being exerted on them, someone outside the scene will see something different.

Example: If John is in a car that takes a sharp right turn, he will feel as though he is being pushed to his left. This is an imaginary force, called a centrifugal force, or a "running away from the center" force. John feels it because he is inside the car and is affected by it. However, if John's friend, Andy, is on the side of the road facing the front of John's car and watches John's car take a sharp right turn, Andy will see the car push John to the right with the car as it changes direction. This is a real force called centripetal force (or an "aiming towards the center" force) and acts towards the center of the circle of rotation.

$F = m a =m \frac{v^2}{r}$

Images for kids

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  In the inertial frame of reference (upper part of the picture), the black ball moves in a straight line. However, the observer (brown dot) who is standing in the rotating/non-inertial frame of reference (lower part of the picture) sees the object as following a curved path due to the Coriolis and centrifugal forces present in this frame.

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  The interface of two immiscible liquids rotating around a vertical axis is an upward-opening circular paraboloid.