What is the difference of centripetal force and centrifugal force?

Answer 1

Centripetal force is directed toward the center of rotation of an orbiting body or object following a curved path. Centrifugal force is the apparent force, equal and opposite to the centripetal force, drawing a rotating body away from the center of rotation, caused by the inertia of the body.

Whenever you see a moving object that's not traveling in a straight line, you know that a force is acting upon it. That's because objects tend to resist changes to their velocities. The greater the mass, the greater the resistance to changes in velocity. That's called inertia. Objects at rest tend to stay at rest, and objects in motion tend to stay in motion, unless acted upon by some external force. (See Newton's First Law.)

Since velocity is a vector -- remember vectors have magnitude AND direction -- any change in an object's direction constitutes a changes in its velocity. When an object is flying around in a circle, its velocity is constantly changing because its direction is constantly changing! That means a force is working on it. That force is the centripetal force, and since force is equal to mass times acceleration, there must be an acceleration involved. You guessed it -- centripetal acceleration.

In short:

Centrifugal force is away from the center and centripetal force is towards the center.

In even shorter:

Centripetal force is real. Centrifugal force doesn't exist.

Answer 2

Centripetal force is the inward directed force that causes an object to move in a circular path.

Centrifugal force is actually not a force; it is the apparent (and fictitious) "force" that one feels when traveling a circular path; directed outward, it is actually the inertia of an object that is resisting being pulled in a circular path.

Answer 3

Tangential acceleration is acceleration in the direction of travel, i.e. tangent to the instantaneous velocity. Centripetal acceleration is perpendicular or normal to that, specifically, in the direction of the acceleration, i.e. towards the center of the circle of travel. Angular acceleration is anything in between, or outside of those two definition, i.e. not tangent and not normal.

Answer 4

Centripetal force is the inward force that keeps an object moving in a circular path, while centrifugal force is the outward force that appears to act on an object moving in a circular path. Centrifugal force is a pseudo force and does not actually exist, it is a result of an observer in a rotating reference frame perceiving the object to be moving away.

Answer 5

force is the product of mass of the body in circular motion and centripetal accleration