Can you guys help me write a short story about how centrifugal force is fictitious?

Question

I don't really understand it and if possible can you guys write a story about your everyday normal life explaining how centrifugal force is false.

Answer 1

Fictitious is really a technical term used to describe a force which occurs in a non-inertial reference frame. It does not mean that the force doesn't exist.



For example, if you standing still on a rotating merry-go-round you experience centrifugal force, (which is one of the fictitious forces).



To someone standing still on the ground watching you, Newton's laws apply and they see inertia acting on you, (from their (inertial) reference frame there is a tendency to continue in a straight line according to Newton's 1st law), which is counteracted by the centripetal force of the motion of the merry-go-round (Newton's 3rd law).



Newton's 1st law ONLY applies to inertial reference frames, not non-inertial frames such as a person experiences on rotating merry-go-rounds.



So centrifugal forces exist - it depends on your frame of reference. In fact Einstein wondered if gravity was such a "fictitious" force and that lead him to his theory of General Relativity. So you see, it's all relative, lol.



If your teacher (or textbook) is telling you that fictitious forces don't exist you should complain and show them this answer. Also suggest they call these forces by their less misleading name: inertial forces.

Answer 2

The centrifugal force is sometimes called a pseudo-force. It is not really a force at all but the effect of an object's inertia which would keep the object moving in a straight line apart from a real force being applied to restrain it (such as the normal force from the outer wall of a container it is spinning in).



As far as the story, you might think about a child on a merry-go-round or the guy riding a motorcycle in a spherical wire cage at a fair.

Answer 3

Centrifugal Force being false?

There are devices called centrifuges used in a variety of applications that exist for the sole purpose of harnessing centrifugal force.

I can only think of 2 ways centrifugal force could be considered false:

1) Centrifugal force is actually inertia. When something spins, it wants to go straight(layman explanation), the spinning presses it against the centrifuge's side, hence, centrifugal force.

2) Gravity. Centrifugal force can generate gravity(I don't think any existing structure does this)...

Centrifugal force isn't real gravity. The desire of objects in motion to continue their current motion presses them against the outside of the centrifuge/object/device/etc, causing them to seem to stick to it, to the point where if you were standing on the inside of such an object, feet pressed outward against the side, and it were large enough, when you jumped you would land like gravity was there.

But it's not real gravity.

In fact, the Earth rotates but gravity moves in the opposite direction that a spinning object would cause the illusion of gravity to move.



But to say centifugal force is fictitious is simply wrong.