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There are two forces; one is the force of gravity vertically downward through the center of mass of the ball mg, where m is the mass of the ball and g is the gravitational acceleration; the second is the upward normal force exerted by the road at a right angle to the road surface ma n. The centripetal force demanded by the curved motion is also ...
In such cases, the centripetal force is gravity, and by Newton's law of universal gravitation has magnitude /, where is the mass of the larger body being orbited. Therefore, the mass of a body can be calculated from observations of another body orbiting around it.
The portion of the mass that is located at radii r > r 0 exerts no net gravitational force at the radius r 0 from the center. That is, the individual gravitational forces exerted on a point at radius r 0 by the elements of the mass outside the radius r 0 cancel each other.
This inward acceleration is called centripetal acceleration, it requires a centripetal force to maintain the circular motion. This force is exerted by the ground upon the wheels, in this case, from the friction between the wheels and the road. [21] The car is accelerating, due to the unbalanced force, which causes it to move in a circle.
In a two-body rotation, such as a planet and moon rotating about their common center of mass or barycentre, the forces on both bodies are centripetal. In that case, the reaction to the centripetal force of the planet on the moon is the centripetal force of the moon on the planet. [6]
Next Newton proves his "Theorema II" which shows that if Kepler's second law results, then the force involved must be along the line between the two bodies. In other words, Newton proves what today might be called the "inverse Kepler problem": the orbit characteristics require the force to depend on the inverse square of the distance. [3]: 107
Another common mistake is to state that "the centrifugal force that an object experiences is the reaction to the centripetal force on that object." [ 9 ] [ 10 ] If an object were simultaneously subject to both a centripetal force and an equal and opposite centrifugal force , the resultant force would vanish and the object could not experience a ...
This reaction force is sometimes described as a centrifugal inertial reaction, [44] [45] that is, a force that is centrifugally directed, which is a reactive force equal and opposite to the centripetal force that is curving the path of the mass. The concept of the reactive centrifugal force is sometimes used in mechanics and engineering.