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Centrifugal Force



I was amused to read the comment of William Osgood ( Late Professor at
Harvard) in his "Mechanics" (1937, republished by Dover in 1964) on those
who insist on imagining an outward force on a particle held in circular
motion by a string: "There is no answer to these people. Some of them are
good citizens. They vote the ticket of the party that is responsible for
the prosperity of the country; they belong to the only true church; they
subscribe to the Red Cross drive -- but they have no place in the Temple
of Science; they profane it."

As I said, I was amused; I do not necessarily agree with the polemical
language. A better solution, it seems to me, would be to discuss what we
all agree on, namely, the accelerations involved. Everyone agrees that
there are centrifugal accelerations and Coriolis accelerations relative to
noninertial frames of reference. Can't we all just divide by mass and
discuss accelerations? All the calculational advantages claimed are
immediately available. Then, those who have some "mystical" further
commitment to inventing forces with non-Newtonian or non-Einsteinian
properties can go off to their corner and discuss such; the rest of us
can go on without such extra "forces." It seems to me this would clarify
things a whole lot for our students.


A. R. Marlow E-MAIL: marlow@loyno.edu
Department of Physics, Box 124 PHONE: (504) 865 3647 (Office)
Loyola University 865 2245 (Home)
New Orleans, LA 70118 FAX: (504) 865 2453