In the upcoming lab, we'll be venturing into territory that may have been verboten in your Physics class last year. Do you recall the teacher's reaction the first time a student used the word centrifugal to describe a force on an object in circular motion? This was forbidden territory because centrifugal forces arise in rotating (i.e., non-inertial) frames of reference. Of course, everything you do in first-year Physics assumes inertial frames of reference. For the most part, this is also true of the present course with the exception of this prelab and the associated lab, where you will have the opportunity to experience so-called pseudo-forces firsthand. After the lab, we'll return to our ho-hum inertial existence.

Before doing this prelab, take the introductory tour of the Physics Merry-go-Round.

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Check here to indicate that you will work by yourself on this assignment .

1. I (meaning you) had firsthand experience of centrifugal force in Physics last year when ...

I timed my lab partner as he/she was spinning on the rotating stool.

I said the word centrifugal and my teacher dropped me out of the 4th floor window.

I rode on a State Fair ride.

Alas, I didn't experience centrifugal force last year, but I'll make up for it by riding the Great Physics Merry-go-Round Tuesday.

2. Find any references to the following terms in your textbook: centrifugal, Coriolis, pseudo-force, fictitious force, apparent force.  Give the page number and context.

3. Chill out on this puzzle. Then return here to select one of the following:

The photograph is proof that centrifugal forces exist. My physics teacher lied to me.

The photograph is obviously a fake. Real icicles would form along tangents to the circular path.

Radial icicles form because the tires are radials.

The radial icicles are real and can be explained with the Physics that I learned last year.

Now we'll move on to a problem directly related to the Physics Merry-go-Round.