Re: [Phys-l] Centrifugal redux

[Michael Porter <listmoe@gmail.com>]

Is it time to mention Mach's Principle yet? I'm still unsteady on that  
one.

Short version:
I'm floating in space, holding some weights at arm's length.
I'm spinning (I can tell by looking at the stars), and I feel the  
weights tugging outwards as I spin.
Now, using my god-like powers, I make the rest of the universe  
disappear (I engineer it so that everything winks out simultaneously,  
despite the differences in distance -- god-like powers, and all that).
I now have no external reference to tell me I'm spinning. Do the  
weights still tug outwards?
Can I achieve the same effect by closing my eyes?  ;-)


On 18-Mar-09, at 1:54 PM, Bob Sciamanda wrote:

> John Clement wrote:
>
> > What about saying just asking them to identify the agent of the  
> > force?
> One interpretation might identify the agent as the distant stars.
> When viewed, for example, from a rotating earth, the stars  
> constitute a
> rotating mass generating  gravi-magnetic fields - resulting in
> centrifugal/coriolis forces for the earth observers.

---
Michael Porter
Colonel By Secondary School
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada