Originally posted by Adie123
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Hi Adie123,
I think I must be missing something in your model
When I hear the term "Centrifugal Force" I think of this definition:
Centrifugal Force -- from Eric Weisstein's World of Physics
And I find this animation helpful:
Centrifugal Force - The False Force
And it is fun to imagine certain things like here:
Braingle: 'Merry-Go-Round' Brain Teaser
In that last one, if a person were on a rotating platform as described, in a totally dark room and held a ball with a glowing light in it, then threw the ball across the platform at a speed such that the platform would rotate him to the other side simultaneously whereby he could catch the ball he threw; What would the trajectory of the ball look like to the thrower?
First he sees the ball leaving and curving off to the side, then he sees the ball directly in front of him (as it passes over the center of the platform), and then he sees the ball curving to the other side and coming toward him. From his perspective, there is some mysterious force emanating from the center of the platform he is standing on that pushes the ball back to him in the darkness and makes it do some strange curving motion.
But in reality, the truth is, the ball traveled along a relatively straight path (relative to the room the platform is in) and it is the observer who is rotating.
Here is a simple video demonstrating the rotating reference frames:
YouTube - The Coriolis Force
So while the force is not considered a real force from an outside observer, the effects on a mass being forced to curve by some constraint (centripetal force) when it would rather go straight cannot be ignored:
xkcd: Centrifugal Force
What I seem to have missed, is how this force can have any effect outside of the rotating frame of reference where it would simply disappear. In the last link, the evil genius was not exposed to the force because he was outside the rotating reference frame.
So I don't see the connection between this force and things being attracted to the outside of the rotating ship.
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