Essay On Centripetal Force

The purpose of this experiment is to test if the the radius of a circle affects how much centripetal force affects an object. Centripetal force plays a major part in every day life. This force is the reason for the sensation of being ‘pushed’ into the car door that passengers in a car feel when the driver makes a sharp left turn (The Centripetal Force Requirement, n.d.). It is the reason people feel almost weightless on rollercoasters, and on an even larger scale, it is what keeps the moon orbiting around Earth. Without centripetal force, cars would not be able to make turns and the Earth would no longer have a moon (Centripetal Force - Real-life applications, n.d.). For these reasons, centripetal force is extremely important and is used daily. In this experiment, the control variable is just a marble in a cup filled with jello. The independent variable is the length of the string attached to the cup, as that will be changed to test if the radius of a circle affects the centripetal force. So what is centripetal force, exactly? By definition, “centripetal force is a center seeking force which means that the force is always directed toward the center of the circle,” (Centripetal Force - The Real Force, n.d.). Isaac Newton came up with the name centripetal, which means
As stated before, centripetal force refers to the force that draws an object spinning on a circular path back in towards the center. Centripetal force counteracts centrifugal force and prevents the object from going off on a tangent. Centrifugal ‘force’, however is not an actual force. Instead, it is the “tendency of an object following a curved path to fly outwards, away from the center of the curve,” (Centrifugal Force vs. Centripetal Force, n.d.). This tendency is caused by inertia. An object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by a force. An object in motion will remain in motion until acted