Fictitious force

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See also: Mechanics of planar particle motion A fictitious force, also called a pseudo force,[1] d'Alembert force[2][3] or inertial force,[4][5] is an apparent force that acts on all masses in a non-inertial frame of reference, such as a rotating reference frame. The force F does not arise from any physical interaction but rather from the acceleration a of the noninertial reference frame itself. As stated by Iro:[6][7]
Such an additional force due to nonuniform relative motion of two reference frames is called a pseudo-force. H Iro in A Modern Approach to Classical Mechanics p. 180

According to Newton's second law in the form F = m a, fictitious forces always are proportional to the mass m acted upon. A fictitious force arises when a frame of reference is accelerating compared to a non-accelerating frame. As a frame can accelerate in any arbitrary way, so can fictitious forces be as arbitrary (but only in direct response to the acceleration of the frame). However, four fictitious forces are defined for frames accelerated in commonly occurring ways: one caused by any relative acceleration of the origin in a straight line (rectilinear acceleration),[8] two caused by any rotation (centrifugal force and Coriolis force) and a fourth, called the Euler force, caused by a variable rate of rotation, should that occur.
Contents
[hide]

1 Background 2 Fictitious forces on Earth 3 Detection of non-inertial reference frame 4 Examples of fictitious forces

o o

4.1 Acceleration in a straight line 4.2 Circular motion

4.3 Fictitious forces and work

5 Gravity as a fictitious force 6 Mathematical derivation of fictitious forces

o o o o o

6.1 General derivation 6.2 Rotating coordinate systems 6.3 Orbiting coordinate systems 6.4 Orbiting and rotating 6.5 Crossing a carousel

6.5.1 Inertial observer 6.5.2 Rotating observer

6.6 Observation

7 See also 8 Notes 9 Further reading 10 External links

[edit]Background
See also: Absolute space and time The role of fictitious forces in Newtonian mechanics is described by Tonnelat: [9]
For Newton, the appearance of acceleration always indicates the existence of absolute motion - absolute motion of matter where real forces are concerned; absolute motion of the reference system, where socalled fictitious forces, such as inertial forces or those of Coriolis, are concerned. Marie-Antoinette Tonnelat in The Principles of Electromagnetic Theory and Relativity, p. 113

[edit]Fictitious

forces on Earth

See also: centrifugal force, Coriolis force, and Euler force The surface of the Earth is a rotating reference frame. To solve classical mechanics problems exactly in an Earth-bound reference frame, three fictitious forces must be introduced, the Coriolis force, thecentrifugal force (described below) and the Euler force. The Euler force is typically ignored because its magnitude is very small. Both of the other fictitious forces are weak compared to most typical forces in everyday life, but they can be detected under careful conditions. For example, Lon Foucault was able to show the Coriolis force that results from the Earth's rotation using the Foucault pendulum. If the Earth were to rotate a thousand times faster (making each day only ~86 seconds long), people could easily get the impression that such fictitious forces are pulling on them, as on a spinning carousel.

[edit]Detection

of non-inertial reference frame

See also: Inertial frame of reference Observers inside a closed box that is moving with a constant velocity cannot detect their own motion; however, observers within an accelerating reference frame can detect that they are in a non-inertial reference frame from the fictitious forces that arise. For example, for straight-line acceleration:[10]
In a coordinate system K which moves by translation relative to an inertial system k, the motion of a mechanical system takes place as if the coordinate system were inertial, but on every point of mass m an additional "inertial force" acted: F m a, where a is the acceleration of the system K V.I. Arnol'd Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics, p. 129

Other accelerations also give rise to fictitious forces, as described mathematically below. The physical explanation of motions in an inertial frames is the simplest possible, requiring no fictitious forces: fictitious forces are zero, providing a means to distinguish inertial frames from others.[11] An example of the detection of a non-inertial, rotating reference frame is the precession of a Foucault pendulum. In the non-inertial frame of the Earth, the fictitious Coriolis force is necessary to explain observations. In an inertial frame outside the Earth, no such fictitious force is necessary.

[edit]Examples

of fictitious forces
in a straight line

[edit]Acceleration

Figure 1: Top panel: accelerating car of mass M with passenger of mass m. The force from the axle is (m + M) a. In the inertial frame, this is the only force on the car and passenger. Center panel: an exploded view in the inertial frame. The passenger is subject to the accelerating force ma. The seat (assumed of negligible mass) is compressed between the reaction force ma and the applied force from the car ma. The car is subject to the net acceleration forceMa that is the difference between the applied force (m + M)a from the axle and the reaction from the seat ma. Bottom panel: an exploded view in the non-inertial frame. In the non-inertial frame where the car is not accelerating, the force from the axle is balanced by a fictitious backward force (m + M) a, a portion M aapplied to the car, and m a to the passenger. The car is subject to the fictitious force Ma and the force (m + M) a from the axle. The difference between these forces ma is applied to the seat, which exerts a reaction ma upon the car, so zero net force is applied to the car. The seat (assumed massless) transmits the force ma to the passenger, who is subject also to the fictitious force ma, resulting in zero net force on the passenger. The passenger exerts a reaction force ma upon the seat, which is therefore compressed. In all frames the compression of the seat is the same, and the force delivered by the axle is the same.

Figure 1 (top) shows an accelerating car. When a car accelerates, a passenger feels like they're being pushed back into the seat. In an inertial frame of reference attached to the road, there is no physical force moving the rider backward. However, in the rider's non-inertial reference frame attached to the accelerating car, there is a backward fictitious force. We mention two possible ways of analyzing the problem: [clarification
needed][12]

1. Figure 1, (center panel). From an inertial reference frame, with a constant velocity matching the initial motion[clarification needed]of the car, the car is accelerating. In order for the passenger to stay inside the car, a force must be exerted on them. This force is exerted by the seat, which has started to move forward with the car and is compressed against the passenger until it transmits the full force to keep the passenger moving with the car. Thus, the forces of the seat are unbalanced,[clarification needed] so the passenger is accelerating in this frame. 2. Figure 1, (bottom panel). From the point of view of the interior of the car, an accelerating reference frame, there is a fictitious force pushing the passenger backwards, with magnitude equal to the mass of the passenger times the acceleration of the car. This force pushes the passenger back into the seat, until the seat compresses and provides an equal and opposite force. Thereafter, the passenger is stationary in this frame, because the fictitious force and the real force of the seat are balanced. How can the accelerating frame be discovered to be non-inertial? In the accelerating frame, everything appears to be subject to zero net force, and nothing moves. Nonetheless, compression of the seat is observed and is explained in the accelerating frame (and in an inertial frame) by the force of acceleration on the seat from the car on one side, and the opposing force of reaction to acceleration by the passenger on the other. Identification of the accelerating frame as non-inertial cannot be based simply on the compression of the seat, which all observers can explain; rather it is based on the simplicity of the physical explanation for this compression. The explanation of the seat compression in the accelerating frame requires not only the thrust from the axle of the car, but additional (fictitious) forces. In an inertial frame, only the thrust from the axle is necessary. Therefore, the inertial frame has a simpler physical explanation (not necessarily a simpler mathematical formulation, however), indicating the accelerating frame is a non-inertial frame of reference. In other words, in the inertial frame, fictitious forces are zero. See inertial frame for more detail. This example illustrates how fictitious forces arise from switching from an inertial to a non-inertial reference frame. Calculations of physical quantities (compression of the seat, required force from the axle) made in any frame give the same answers, but in some cases calculations are easier to make in a non-inertial frame. (In this simple example, the calculations are equally complex for the two frames described.)
[show]Animation: driving from block to block

[edit]Circular

motion

See also: Centrifugal force, Reactive centrifugal force, and Coriolis force

A similar effect occurs in circular motion, circular from the standpoint of an inertial frame of reference attached to the road. When seen from a non-inertial frame of reference attached to the car, the fictitious force called the centrifugal force appears. If the car is moving at constant speed around a circular section of road, the occupants will feel pushed outside by this centrifugal force, away from the center of the turn. Again the situation can be viewed from inertial or non-inertial frames (for free body diagrams, see the turning car): 1. From the viewpoint of an inertial reference frame stationary with respect to the road, the car is accelerating toward the center of the circle. This acceleration is necessary because the direction of the velocity is changing, despite a constant speed. This inward acceleration is called centripetal acceleration and requires a centripetal force to maintain the circular motion. This force is exerted by the ground upon the wheels, in this case thanks to the friction between the wheels and the road.[13] The car is accelerating, due to the unbalanced force, which causes it to move in a circle. (See also banked turn.) 2. From the viewpoint of a rotating frame, moving with the car, there is a fictitious centrifugal force that tends to push the car toward the outside of the road (and to push the occupants toward the outside of the car). The centrifugal force balances the friction between wheels and road, making the car stationary in this non-inertial frame. A classic example of fictitious force in circular motion is the experiment of rotating spheres tied by a cord and spinning around their center of mass. In this case, as with the linearly accelerating car example, the identification of a rotating, non-inertial frame of reference can be based upon the vanishing of fictitious forces. In an inertial frame, fictitious forces are not necessary to explain the tension in the string joining the spheres. In a rotating frame, Coriolis and centrifugal forces must be introduced to predict the observed tension. To consider another example, where a rotating reference frame is very natural to us, namely the surface of the rotating Earth, centrifugal force reduces the apparent force of gravity by about one part in a thousand, depending on latitude. This reduction is zero at the poles, maximum at the equator.
[show]Animation: object released from a carousel

The fictitious Coriolis force, which is observed in rotational frames, is ordinarily visible only in very large-scale motion like the projectile motion of long-range guns or the circulation of the Earth's atmosphere (see Rossby number). Neglecting air resistance, an object dropped from a 50-meterhigh tower at the equator will fall 7.7 millimeters eastward of the spot below where it is dropped because of the Coriolis force.[14] In the case of distant objects and a rotating reference frame, what must be taken into account is the resultant force of centrifugal and Coriolis force. Consider a distant star observed from a rotating spacecraft. In the reference frame co-rotating with the spacecraft, the distant star appears to move along a circular trajectory around the spacecraft. The apparent motion of the star is an

apparent centripetal acceleration. Just like in the example above of the car in circular motion, the centrifugal force has the same magnitude as the fictitious centripetal force, but is directed in the opposite, centrifugal direction. In this case the Coriolis force is twice the magnitude of the centrifugal force, and it points in centripetal direction. The vector sum of the centrifugal force and the Coriolis force is the total fictitious force, which in this case points in centripetal direction.

[edit]Fictitious

forces and work

Fictitious forces can be considered to do work, provided that they move an object on a trajectory that changes its energy from potential to kinetic. For example, consider a person in a rotating chair holding a weight in his outstretched arm. If he pulls his arm inward, from the perspective of his rotating reference frame he has done work against centrifugal force. If he now lets go of the weight, from his perspective it spontaneously flies outward, because centrifugal force has done work on the object, converting its potential energy into kinetic. From an inertial viewpoint, of course, the object flies away from him because it is suddenly allowed to move in a straight line. This illustrates that the work done, like the total potential and kinetic energy of an object, can be different in a non-inertial frame than an inertial one.

[edit]Gravity

as a fictitious force

Main article: General relativity The notion of "fictitious force" comes up in general relativity.[15][16] All fictitious forces are proportional to the mass of the object upon which they act, which is also true for gravity.[17] This led Albert Einstein to wonder whether gravity was a fictitious force as well. He noted that a freefalling observer in a closed box would not be able to detect the force of gravity; hence, freefalling reference frames are equivalent to an inertial reference frame (the equivalence principle). Following up on this insight, Einstein was able to formulate a theory with gravity as a fictitious force; attributing the apparent acceleration of gravity to the curvature of spacetime. This idea underlies Einstein's theory of general relativity. See Etvs experiment.
[show]Animation: ball that rolls off a cliff

[edit]Mathematical

derivation of fictitious forces

Figure 2: An object located at xA in inertial frame A is located at location xB in accelerating frame B. The origin of frame B is located at XAB in frame A. The orientation of frame B is determined by the unit vectors along its coordinate directions, uj with j = 1, 2, 3. Using these axes, the coordinates of the object according to frame B are xB = ( x1, x2, x3 ).

[edit]General

derivation

Many problems require use of noninertial reference frames, for example, those involving satellites[19][20] and particle accelerators.[21] Figure 2 shows a particle with mass m and position vector xA(t) in a particular inertial frame A. Consider a non-inertial frame B whose origin relative to the inertial one is given by XAB(t). Let the position of the particle in frame B bexB(t). What is the force on the particle as expressed in the coordinate system of frame B? [22][23] To answer this question, let the coordinate axis in B be represented by unit vectors uj with j any of { 1, 2, 3 } for the three coordinate axes. Then

The interpretation of this equation is that xB is the vector displacement of the particle as expressed in terms of the coordinates in frame B at time t. From frame A the particle is located at:

As an aside, the unit vectors { uj } cannot change magnitude, so derivatives of these vectors express only rotation of the coordinate system B. On the other hand, vector XAB simply locates the origin of frame B relative to frame A, and so cannot include rotation of frame B. Taking a time derivative, the velocity of the particle is:

The second term summation is the velocity of the particle, say vB as measured in frame B. That is:

The interpretation of this equation is that the velocity of the particle seen by observers in frame A consists of what observers in frame B call the velocity, namely vB, plus two extra terms related to the rate of change of the frame-B coordinate axes. One of these is simply the velocity of the moving origin vAB. The other is a contribution to velocity due to the fact that different locations in the non-inertial frame have different apparent velocities due to rotation of the frame; a point seen from a rotating frame has a rotational component of velocity that is greater the further the point is from the origin. To find the acceleration, another time differentiation provides:

Using the same formula already used for the time derivative of xB, the velocity derivative on the right is:

Consequently,

(Eq. 1) The interpretation of this equation is as follows: the acceleration of the particle in frame A consists of what

observers in frame B call the particle acceleration aB, but in addition there are three acceleration terms related to the movement of the frame-B coordinate axes: one term related to the acceleration of the origin of frame B, namely aAB, and two terms related to rotation of frame B. Consequently, observers in B will see the particle motion as possessing "extra" acceleration, which they will attribute to "forces" acting on the particle, but which observers in A say are "fictitious" forces arising simply because observers in B do not recognize the non-inertial nature of frame B. The factor of two in the Coriolis force arises from two equal contributions: (i) the apparent change of an inertially constant velocity with time because rotation makes the direction of the velocity seem to change (a dvB / dt term) and (ii) an apparent change in the velocity of an object when its position changes, putting it nearer to or further from the axis of rotation (the change in xj uj due to change inx j ).

To put matters in terms of forces, the accelerations are multiplied by the particle mass:

The force observed in frame B, FB = m aB is related to the actual force on the particle, FA, by:

where:

Thus, we can solve problems in frame B by assuming that Newton's second law holds (with respect to quantities in that frame) and treating Ffictitious as an additional force.[10][24][25] Below are a number of examples applying this result for fictitious forces. More examples can be found in the article on centrifugal force.

[edit]Rotating

coordinate systems

A common situation in which noninertial reference frames are useful is when the reference frame is rotating. Because such rotational motion is non-inertial, due to the acceleration present in any rotational motion, a fictitious force can always be invoked by using a rotational frame of reference. Despite this complication, the use of fictitious forces often simplifies the calculations involved. To derive expressions for the fictitious forces, derivatives are needed for the apparent time rate of change of vectors that take into account time-variation of the coordinate axes. If the rotation of frame Bis represented by a vector pointed along the axis of rotation with orientation given by the right-hand rule, and with magnitude given by

then the time derivative of any of the three unit vectors describing frame B is:[24][26]

and

as is verified using the properties of the vector cross product. These derivative formulas now are applied to the relationship between acceleration in an inertial frame, and that in a coordinate frame rotating with time-varying angular velocity ( t ). From the

previous section, where subscript A refers to the inertial frame and B to the rotating frame, setting aAB = 0 to remove any translational acceleration, and focusing on only rotational properties (see Eq. 1):

Collecting terms, the result is the socalled acceleration transformation formula:[27]

The physical acceleration aA due to what observers in the inertial frame A call real external forces on the object is, therefore, not simply the acceleration aB seen

by observers in the rotational frame B , but has several additional geometric acceleration terms associated with the rotation of B. As seen in the rotational frame, the acceleration aB of the particle is given by rearrangement of the above equation as:

The net force upon the object according to observers in the rotating frame is FB = m aB. If their observations are to result in the correct force on the object when using Newton's laws, they must consider that the additional force Ffict is present, so the end result is FB = FA + Ffict. Thus, the

fictitious force used by observers in B to get the correct behavior of the object from Newton's laws equals:

Here, the first term is the Coriolis force,[28] th e second term is the centrifu gal force,[29] an d the third term is the Euler force.[30][31] When the rate of rotation doesn't change, as is typically the case for a planet, the Euler force is zero.

[edit]Orb

iting coordin

ate system s
This unreferenced

requires citations to

ensureverifiability.

Figure 3: An orbiting but fixed orientati on coordin ate system B, shown at three different times. The unit vectors uj, j = 1, 2, 3 do not r otate, but maintai na

fixed orientati on, while the origin of the coordin ate system B move s at constan t angular rate about the fixed axis . Axis p asses through the origin of inertial frame A , so the origin of frame B is a fixed distanc e R fro m the origin of inertial frame A .

As a related example, suppose the moving coordinate system B r otates in a circle of radius R a bout the fixed origin of inertial frame A, but maintains its coordinate axes fixed in orientation, as in Figure 3. The acceleratio n of an observed body is now (see Eq. 1):

where the summ

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