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Re: Banked road



Rick Tarara wrote:

I _would_ discuss what the observer feels. The students have experienced
the situation described above. They can relate to this and to their
'feelings' while on various carnival rides. You can use that experience to
then discuss the physics. If one is to analyze the non-inertial frame both
as viewed from an inertial frame and as viewed from within the accelerating
frame, then it seems to me that it is essential to analyze what the observer
'feels' in order to bring understanding to the situation.

a) I 100% agree that (as a matter of pedagogy) such feelings are _one_ of the
things that are worth discussing.
b) I was just pointing out that what the observer "feels" via muscular effort
etc. is not the _only_ thing worth discussing. Such feelings are not (as a
matter of physics) the _defining_ property of the centrifugal field. An apple
will be subjected to the acceleration of the centrifugal field no matter whether
any observers exert any muscular effort or not.