Does centripetal mean balanced or unbalanced?

Answer 1

Centripetal force acting on an orbiting object is unbalanced since the object is being accelerated.

Velocity is continually changing direction if not speed. This means an orbiting object is accelerating and the direction of acceleration is toward the center. In fact, centripetal means "center seeking."

A person at rest on the surface of the Earth is being acted upon by a centripetal force (toward the center of the Earth, that is, down) which is exactly equal and opposite to the spring force of the Earth's matter pushing up. Thus, in this case, the centripetal force is balanced.

The previous answer (below) is generally incorrect.

No,because when a body revolves round an orbit,its CENTRIPETAL force is balanced by the WEIGHT of the body!thank you!!

Answer 2

Neither. "Centripetal" means "seeking the center" or "directed toward the center". For example, the force on a satellite circling the Earth is centripetal because it is directed toward the Earth, which is at the center of the satellite's orbit.