Re: centrifugal force

["Bob Sciamanda" <trebor@velocity.net>]

Finding a consistent correlation between forces and accelerations
INCLUDES the correlation of force-free motion with zero acceleration.
But you cannot make the judgment that force free objects do not
accelerate in your frame without identifying the existing forces.  The
"law of inertia" means nothing except as part of the whole pie - a model
of forces of interactions among things.

-Bob

Bob Sciamanda   trebor@velocity.net
Dept of Physics
Edinboro Univ of PA  http://www.velocity.net/~trebor
Edinboro, PA   (814)838-7185
-----Original Message-----
From: Leigh Palmer <palmer@sfu.ca>
To: phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu <phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu>
Date: Thursday, April 30, 1998 5:48 PM
Subject: Re: centrifugal force


> >       The stance of Newtonian Mechanics is that if you can find a
> > consistent set of "forcing" agents to account for the accelerations
> > which you observe then you are (at least operationaly) in an inertial
> > frame and can use F=ma.  If not then this is how you
> > discover and measure YOUR a.
>
> That is perverse! In Newtonian mechanics an inertial frame is
> operationally defined as one in which the law of inertia holds;
> it is as simple as that. In a rotating frame one can certainly
> find an "agent" which accounts for accelerations observed (the
> rotation is such an "agent"), but few would claim that the
> rotating frame is an inertial frame.
>
> Leigh