Centrifugal force

Centrifugal force
Centrifugal Cen*trif"u*gal, a. [L. centrum center + fugere to flee.] 1. Tending, or causing, to recede from the center. [1913 Webster]

2. (Bot.) (a) Expanding first at the summit, and later at the base, as a flower cluster. (b) Having the radicle turned toward the sides of the fruit, as some embryos. [1913 Webster]

{Centrifugal force} (Mech.), a force whose direction is from a center. [1913 Webster]

Note: When a body moves in a circle with uniform velocity, a force must act on the body to keep it in the circle without change of velocity. The direction of this force is towards the center of the circle. If this force is applied by means of a string to the body, the string will be in a state of tension. To a person holding the other end of the string, this tension will appear to be directed toward the body as if the body had a tendency to move away from the center of the circle which it is describing. Hence this latter force is often called centrifugal force. The force which really acts on the body being directed towards the center of the circle is called centripetal force, and in some popular treatises the centripetal and centrifugal forces are described as opposing and balancing each other. But they are merely the different aspects of the same stress. --Clerk Maxwell. [1913 Webster]

{Centrifugal impression} (Physiol.), an impression (motor) sent from a nerve center outwards to a muscle or muscles by which motion is produced.

{Centrifugal machine}, A machine for expelling water or other fluids from moist substances, or for separating liquids of different densities by centrifugal action; a whirling table.

{Centrifugal pump}, a machine in which water or other fluid is lifted and discharged through a pipe by the energy imparted by a wheel or blades revolving in a fixed case. Some of the largest and most powerful pumps are of this kind. [1913 Webster]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.

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  • Centrifugal force — Force Force, n. [F. force, LL. forcia, fortia, fr. L. fortis strong. See {Fort}, n.] 1. Capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect; strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigor; might; often, an unusual degree of… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • centrifugal force — ► NOUN Physics ▪ a force, arising from the body s inertia, which appears to act on a body moving in a circular path and is directed away from the centre around which the body is moving …   English terms dictionary

  • centrifugal force — n. an inertial force which tends to pull an object outward when it is in orbit or is rotating around a center …   English World dictionary

  • Centrifugal force — Not to be confused with Centripetal force. Classical mechanics Newton s Second Law …   Wikipedia

  • centrifugal force — an outward force on a body rotating about an axis, assumed equal and opposite to the centripetal force and postulated to account for the phenomena seen by an observer in the rotating body. [1715 25] * * * Fictitious force, peculiar to circular… …   Universalium

  • centrifugal force — That force which tends to keep moving objects travelling in a straight line, when a moving vehicle is forced to make a turn, centrifugal force attempts to keep it moving in a straight line, if the vehicle is turning at too high a speed,… …   Dictionary of automotive terms

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  • centrifugal force — noun the outward force on a body moving in a curved path around another body • Ant: ↑centripetal force • Hypernyms: ↑force * * * noun, pl ⋯ forces [count, noncount] physics : a force that causes an object moving in a circular path to move out and …   Useful english dictionary

  • centrifugal force — noun a) in everyday understanding, centrifugal force is the effect that tends to move an object away from the center of a circle it is rotating about (a consequence of inertia). b) In a rotating reference frame, the apparent force that seems to… …   Wiktionary

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