Talk:centrifugal force

Huh? I thought that centrifugal force was a "fake" force that is a mathematical abstraction for the inertia delta for a rotating body. For example, a moon is pulled by the real centrepital force of gravity which is exactly balanced (assuming stable circular orbit) by the fake centrifugal force consisting of the momentum of the object in it's current direction minus the momentum of the object in the new direction according to the orbit path.

In other words, the object wants to keep moving in a line, but the centrepital force pulls it back to cause a circular orbit. There is no outward force, only momentum. mathematically, though, it is useful to create the centrifugal force, even though it is not a real force, because it is mathematically consistant and simplifies a certain class of problems.