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Since the sum of all forces is the centripetal force, drawing centripetal force into a free body diagram is not necessary and usually not recommended. Using F net = F c {\displaystyle F_{\text{net}}=F_{c}} , we can draw free body diagrams to list all the forces acting on an object and then set it equal to F c {\displaystyle F_{c}} .
Note: This page uses common physics notation for spherical coordinates, in which is the angle between the z axis and the radius vector connecting the origin to the point in question, while is the angle between the projection of the radius vector onto the x-y plane and the x axis. Several other definitions are in use, and so care must be taken ...
A centripetal force (from Latin centrum, "center" and petere, "to seek" [1]) is a force that makes a body follow a curved path.The direction of the centripetal force is always orthogonal to the motion of the body and towards the fixed point of the instantaneous center of curvature of the path.
At the equator, the velocity of Earth's surface is about 465 metres per second (1,674 km/h; 1,040 mph). The amount of centripetal force required to cause an object to move along a circular path with a radius of 6378 kilometres (the Earth's equatorial radius), at 465 m/s, is about 0.034 newtons per kilogram of mass. For a 10,000-gram internal ...
Animation depicting evolution of a Cornu spiral with the tangential circle with the same radius of curvature as at its tip, also known as an osculating circle.. To travel along a circular path, an object needs to be subject to a centripetal acceleration (for example: the Moon circles around the Earth because of gravity; a car turns its front wheels inward to generate a centripetal force).
The only requirement is that the central force exactly equals the centripetal force, which determines the required angular velocity for a given circular radius. Non-central forces (i.e., those that depend on the angular variables as well as the radius) are ignored here, since they do not produce circular orbits in general.
The "reactive centrifugal force" discussed in this article is not the same thing as the centrifugal pseudoforce, which is usually what is meant by the term "centrifugal force". Reactive centrifugal force, being one-half of the reaction pair together with centripetal force, is a concept which applies in any reference frame.
It is only in very special circumstances that the vector of the centripetal force and the centrifugal term drop away against each other at every distance from the center of rotation. This is the case if and only if the centripetal force is a harmonic force. In this case, only the Coriolis term remains in the equation of motion.