Centrifugal force is a force that makes an object moving in a circular path move outwards and away from its center. It is considered an inertial force in Newtonian mechanics, wherein it acts on all objects when viewed from the frame of reference of the rotating object.
This concept is applied in various rotating objects such as laboratory centrifuges, planetary orbits, centrifugal railways and more. In everyday life, people feel centrifugal force as well. For instance, when riding a merry-go-round, you may feel like the ride is about to fling you outwards if it rotates quickly enough. Likewise, you may feel it when you’re a passenger in a car that’s making a sharp turn.
Calculating for centrifugal force requires a number of different factors, namely F (the force expressed in newtons), m (the mass of the object), v (the velocity of the object), and r (the radius of the object).
The formula for calculating centrifugal force is:
F = m * v^2/r
To make it much easier to compute for the centrifugal force of an object, you may use our calculator.
Our calculator has 6 fields where you can input the information you have. However, if you want to compute for the centrifugal force of an object, you only need to input the mass of the object in kilograms, the radius of the object in meters, and its tangential velocity in meters/second. Once you input all this information, the calculator will automatically fill in the angular velocity in rpm, the force in newtons, and the centrifugal acceleration in m/s2.
Here is a quick sample problem that you can use to compute for the centrifugal force of an object.
You have a steel ring rotating on an axle at a tangential velocity of 3 meters per second. The ring weighs 2 kg and it has a radius of 1.5 meters. What is the centrifugal force of the steel ring?
When you input this data into the Centrifugal Force Calculator, you will see that the rotating ring has an angular velocity of 19.1 rpm, a force of 12 N, and a centrifugal acceleration of 6 m/s2.
Now let’s try a different problem.
You know that your steel ring has a force of 100 N and that it has a radius of 2 m. You would like to know how many pounds the steel ring has to be to reach a tangential velocity of 5 m/s.
To know the mass of the steel ring, simply input the radius, tangential velocity, and force of the ring, and the calculator will let you know that the ring must be 8 kg. However, since the problem is looking for the weight of the object in pounds, simply select “pounds” from the drop-down menu for the unit of the object’s mass.
You may also change the unit of each variable in the calculator by selecting the appropriate unit from the drop-down menus.
