Re: centrifugal force

[LUDWIK KOWALSKI <KOWALSKIL@alpha.montclair.edu>]

Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 Bob Sciamanda <trebor@velocity.net> wrote:

> ... I would speak of a centrifugal effect, not of a centrifugal force
>     (within the context of Newtonian mechanics). ....
> (Sorry, but I was quiet the last time this can of worms was opened!)

But, as you probably remember, the debate started by considering the
so-called "free body" diagram for a bead on a rotating straw. In the
frame of reference in which the straw is at rest the bead has an
acceleration "a". And whenever we have "a" we must recognize F=m*a.
That was the dilemma. And how to distinguish real weight from a 
fictitious "weight" (if you are a creature living inside of a spinning
tire, for example). Spinning habitates are supposed to be used by space 
travelers in a distant future.
                                         Ludwik Kowalski