On 21 Mar, 05:21, Myles wrote:
On Mar 20, 1:32 am, The Real Doctor wrote:

Physicists, and particularly
school physics teachers, traditionally get terribly upset by the idea
of centrifugal force.

Physicsists make equally snarky comments about engineers, Ian. *

Indeed. Bu hey, the mathematicians despise us all.

My
engineering dynamics professor at UC, Berkeley was *adamant in
opposing the perpetuation of the centrifugal force myth. *It's phony
physics and can lead to seriously erroneous conclusions.

It's a perfectly useful tool if applied correctly. That normally means
within a moving axis system, and getting there is not always simple.
You always have to decide whether it's going to be easier overall to
use the difficult model with the simple setup (stationary axes) or the
simple model with the difficult setup (moving axes).

It's the same in fluids - normally we model a glider by holding it
still and letting the air move past, but that's not always the best
way, or the easiest way. Mind you, I'm a typical lazy engineer, so for
me best = easiest in about 99% of cases.

Ian