Centrifugal force

Summary

The centrifugal force is a fictitious force that appears when motion is described in a rotating reference frame. For a particle of mass $m$ at position $r$ in a frame that turns with angular velocity $\omega$, it equals $-m\,\omega \times (\omega \times r)$. It points away from the axis of rotation and has size $m \abs{\omega}^2 d$, where $d$ is the distance to the axis. With the Coriolis force and the Euler force, it lets Newton's second law keep its form in a rotating frame.