Question

(i) With reference to the direction of action, how does a centripetal force differ from a centrifugal force during uniform circular motion?
(ii) Is centripetal force the force of reaction of centripetal force?
(iii) Compare the magnitudes of centripetal and centrifugal force.

Answer 1

Hint: The forces that act on the curved path and make the object to act in the rotational motion are centripetal force and the centrifugal forces. They are the same in all aspects except the fact that their direction of the action is different as inward and the outward.

Complete answer:
(i) Centripetal force acts in the centre of the rotational motion whereas the centrifugal force is the kind of the rotational force that acts away from the centre. Both the force acts in the direction opposite to each other.

(ii) The centripetal force and the centrifugal force possess the same magnitude but the different opposite directions to each other. Though they behave as the reaction force, they do not form the pair of the action and the reaction as given by Newton's third law of motion. Newton's third law states that for every action produced by one object will have an equal and opposite direction produced by the other object. But these centripetal and the centrifugal force acts on the same body.

(iii) The magnitude of the centripetal and the centrifugal force are equal but their direction varies.

Note:
The examples of the centrifugal force are stone tied by the string at its end is rotated, car that moves in the round pathway etc. The examples of the centripetal force are the rotation of the moon around the earth due to the earth gravitational force as its centre, the rotation of the earth around the sun as the sun as the centre etc.