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Re: heat, centrifugal force, etc.



Savinainen Antti wrote:

Phys-L among other sources have taught me not to ban centrifugal
forces; they do belong to more advanced courses and modern
physics.

The question is whether such a hard stance in intro courses causes
hardship in the advanced courses.

I agree that using the term "centrifugal force" (like "centripetal
force", by the way) confuses students. For this reason, I prefer
using the phrase "apparent force away from the center" instead of
"centrifugal" until the students get used to the idea.

____________________________________________
Robert Cohen; rcohen@po-box.esu.edu; 570-422-3428; http://www.esu.edu/~bbq
Physics, East Stroudsburg Univ., E. Stroudsburg, PA 18301