Research laboratories, the pharmaceutical and dairy industries, and the nuclear-energy sector round the world put this resistance to intelligent use in a machine known as the centrifuge.
| Photo Credit: Okay Ananthan/The Hindu
Ever felt a force pushing you outward, away from the centre, when you find yourself using a merry-go-round? It’s the centrifugal force. It is a force that an object perceives when it’s transferring in a curved path – at all times in the route away from the centre of the path of rotation.
The centrifugal force is usually known as an precise force however it’s actually the product of inertia – the tendency for an object to keep up its state of movement. Unlike precise forces, which come up from an interplay between forces like gravity or magnetism, the centrifugal force arises when an object resists a change of route. And transferring on a curved path is to consistently change route.
Research laboratories, the pharmaceutical and dairy industries, and the nuclear-energy sector round the world put this resistance to intelligent use in a machine known as the centrifuge. Mixtures of drugs are positioned in small containers which can be spun very quick. The centrifugal force pushes on every element of the combination in response to its density. So the less-dense elements are separated from their denser counterparts.
But you may see the force at work in the humble washer itself, which dries garments in the spin cycle by expelling water from them utilizing the centrifugal force.
