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Centrifugal force is a fictitious force in Newtonian mechanics (also called an "inertial" or "pseudo" force) that appears to act on all objects when viewed in a rotating frame of reference. It appears to be directed radially away from the axis of rotation of the frame.
Polflucht (from German, flight from the poles) is a geophysical concept invoked in 1922 by Alfred Wegener to explain his ideas of continental drift.. The pole-flight force is that component of the centrifugal force during the rotation of the Earth that acts tangentially to the Earth's surface.
Since the centrifugal force of the parts of the earth, arising from the earth's diurnal motion, which is to the force of gravity as 1 to 289, raises the waters under the equator to a height exceeding that under the poles by 85472 Paris feet, as above, in Prop. XIX., the force of the sun, which we have now shewed to be to the force of gravity as ...
Without this centripetal force frictionless objects would slide towards the equator. In calculations, when a coordinate system is used that is co-rotating with the Earth, the vector of the notional centrifugal force points outward, and is just as large as the vector representing the centripetal force.
In low-pressure systems, centrifugal force is negligible, and balance is between Coriolis and pressure forces (called geostrophic balance). In the oceans all three forces are comparable (called cyclogeostrophic balance). [6] For a figure showing spatial and temporal scales of motions in the atmosphere and oceans, see Kantha and Clayson. [8]
The ellipsoid is a mathematically defined regular surface with specific dimensions. The geoid, on the other hand, coincides with that surface to which the oceans would conform over the entire Earth if free to adjust to the combined effect of the Earth's mass attraction (gravitation) and the centrifugal force of the Earth's rotation.
Contrary to popular belief, the earth is not entirely spherical but instead generally exhibits an ellipsoid shape- which is a result of the centrifugal forces the planet generates due to its constant motion. [37] These forces cause the planets diameter to bulge towards the Equator and results in the ellipsoid shape. [37]
In classical mechanics, centrifugal force is an outward force associated with rotation.Centrifugal force is one of several so-called pseudo-forces (also known as inertial forces), so named because, unlike real forces, they do not originate in interactions with other bodies situated in the environment of the particle upon which they act.