Re: Centrifugal force

[David Bowman <David_Bowman@GEORGETOWNCOLLEGE.EDU>]

Regarding Skip's question:

> I've never really understood Physics teachers' distaste for the
> phrase, centrifugal force.

I think it's because at the lower level they don't want to confuse
students' minds with effects that occur in non-inertial frames of
reference before they get the students to understand how Newton's
laws work out in simply plain inertial frames first.  I'm not
quite decided on whether the concern is misplaced.

> Doesn't N3 tell us that for every
> centripetal force on an object there is an equal centrifugal force
> on another object?

No, it does not.

David Bowman