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Engineering ToolBox > Centripetal and Centrifugal Force and Acceleration
Centripetal Force and Centrifugal Force is the action-reaction force pair associated with circular motion.
Since the direction of motion is constantly changing for a object that moves in a circular path - the object has an acceleration - named centripetal acceleration, and can be expressed as
ac = v2/r (1)
where
ac = centripetal acceleration (m/s2)
v = velocity (m/s)
r = circular radius (m)
According Newton's second law the centripetal force can be expressed as
Fc = m ac
= m v2/r (2)
where
Fc = centripetal force (N)
m = mass (kg)
A car of 1000 kg travels a curve of radius 200 m at 50 km/h. The centripetal force can bee calculated as
Fc = 1000 (kg) (50*1000/3600 (m/s))2 / 200 (m)
= 965 N
Equation (2) can can be modified to express centripetal or centrifugal force as a function of revolution per minute - rpm - as
Fc = m v2/r
= 4 m π2 n2 r / 60 (3)
where
n = revolution per minute - rpm