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Re: centrifugal force



At 07:05 AM 4/29/98 -0400, you wrote:
http://www.observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/space/centrifugal/centrifugal_entry.html

The above reference (NASA educational item) is devoted to CENTRIFUGAL force.



From the NASA site
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Because the centrifugal force exists only in rotating reference frames, but
not in inertial reference frames, it's sometimes called a "fictitious" or
"pseudo" force.

We don't like this characterization because there is nothing fictitious or
pseudo about it when your car goes off the road and crashes, or when your
bicycle skids out from under you when cornering a slippery curve. The
Earth's equatorial bulge is not a fiction, nor is the problem an engineer
confronts when designing turbine blades of jet engines that have to stay
together at rotation rates of up to 100,000 revolutions per minute.
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It is not the centrifugal force that causes the damage to vehicles and
occupants but the work done by the obstacles in the path of the car in
stopping the car . Once the car has gone off the track there can be no
centrifugal force, Is it not? The kinetic energy of the car is used up
in doing the damage.

But then there is no use. If NASA itself joins the "centrifugal
band-wagon"...

regards,

sarma.