Centrifugal acceleration is an effect of a centrifugal force.
Centrifugal acceleration is the acceleration acquired by an object due to the effect of a centrifugal force (a fictitious force that arises when describing the displacement of an object in a reference system that is rotating ).
It should be noted that acceleration , which comes from the Latin word acceleratĭo , is the act and consequence of accelerating (causing an increase in speed ). The term also refers to the magnitude that allows the expression of the increase in speed in a time unit.
The adjective centrifugal , on the other hand, qualifies that which distances itself from the center or has a tendency to move away from it . As for the center, it is the point located in the middle of something, which is equidistant from the limits or edges.
Etymology can often help us understand the terms in greater depth, or memorize them if they are technicalities that we do not use frequently. In the precise case of a centrifuge , we are faced with a composition that means "flees from the center " , exactly what the aforementioned force represents.
Characteristics of centrifugal acceleration
It can be said that this centrifugal force is part of the inertial forces: those resulting from the description of the displacement of an element or a system from a reference system that is not inertial . The centrifugal force, in this way, is produced by the inertia of the objects when moving around an axis, since these objects show a tendency to maintain a tangential type trajectory with respect to the curve they make.
Centrifugal acceleration, therefore, increases as the centrifugal force increases due to the increase in the mass of the object and the radius of gyration. It is important not to confuse between centrifugal acceleration and centripetal acceleration (the magnitude that is related to the alteration of the direction of the speed of an object that moves following a curvilinear path).
Centrifugal acceleration is appreciated by a non-inertial observer.
centripetal force
It is said that the centrifugal force is fictitious because the force that really acts on the body is the centripetal force , which is causally associated with agents outside it.
If we talk about a uniform circular movement, then this is directed towards the center of the trajectory and is needed for the change in direction of speed to take place, since in the absence of this or another force the body would present a movement in a straight line. at constant speed .
Centrifugal acceleration and the non-inertial observer
Returning to centrifugal acceleration, this concept belonging to Newtonian or classical mechanics is defined as something that a non-inertial observer appreciates. Although the word observer is very common in everyday speech, in the field of physics it is understood as any entity that can carry out measurements of some physical magnitude in a given system , with the aim of obtaining data about its physical state. . In other words, it is someone who not only looks but also has enough tools to express the scene in values useful for science .
With respect to the non-inertial expression, we can say that in a reference system of this type, compliance with Newton's laws of motion is not appreciated, the three principles that allow us to explain almost all the problems of classical mechanics, especially those that are linked to the movement of bodies. If we are given an inertial reference system , another is considered non-inertial if it describes accelerated motion relative to the first.