CENTRIFUGAL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Centrifugal

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/sˈɛntrɪfjˌugəl/ Listen

adjective

Centrifugal adj.

1.

Tending, or causing, to recede from the center.

2.

(Bot.)

(a)

Expanding first at the summit, and later at the base, as a flower cluster.

(b)

Having the radicle turned toward the sides of the fruit, as some embryos.

Centrifugal force (Mech.), a force whose direction is from a center. Note: When a body moves in a circle with uniform velocity, a force must act on the body to keep it in the circle without change of velocity. The direction of this force is towards the center of the circle. If this force is applied by means of a string to the body, the string will be in a state of tension. To a person holding the other end of the string, this tension will appear to be directed toward the body as if the body had a tendency to move away from the center of the circle which it is describing. Hence this latter force is often called centrifugal force. The force which really acts on the body being directed towards the center of the circle is called centripetal force, and in some popular treatises the centripetal and centrifugal forces are described as opposing and balancing each other. But they are merely the different aspects of the same stress.

Centrifugal impression (Physiol.), an impression (motor) sent from a nerve center outwards to a muscle or muscles by which motion is produced.

Centrifugal machine, A machine for expelling water or other fluids from moist substances, or for separating liquids of different densities by centrifugal action; a whirling table.

Centrifugal pump, a machine in which water or other fluid is lifted and discharged through a pipe by the energy imparted by a wheel or blades revolving in a fixed case. Some of the largest and most powerful pumps are of this kind.

noun

Centrifugal n. A centrifugal machine.

See images of 'Centrifugal'

Etymology of 'Centrifugal'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Centrifugal" Quotes from Famous Books

... the matter," said Algebra gravely, adjusting his spectacles, "is that you naturally suppose that if you bend so far out of the perpendicular, the laws of gravity must cause you to fall. But that is because you omit the centrifugal force from your consideration; remember what centrifugal force is, Buller, and it will give ...

— Dr. Jolliffe's Boys • Lewis Hough

... Borrow ever wrote. The book falls off a little towards the close, which is, if possible, even more abrupt and inconclusive than that of "Lavengro" itself. In the appendix, the bigotries, hatreds, and centrifugal propensities which made up the George Borrow of 1850-57 were emphasized and underlined for the benefit of the flunkeys, vipers, and "yahoos" who had dared to asperse his autobiography. He never carried his story on from 1825 to 1832 or wrote the once projected "Bible in Russia"; ...

— George Borrow - Times Literary Supplement, 10th July 1903 • Thomas Seccombe

... earth cannot very well fall toward itself, can it? The sun is pulling on it, though; so the earth could fall into the sun, and it would do so, if it were not swinging around the sun so fast. You will see how this keeps it from falling into the sun when you come to the section on centrifugal force. ...

— Common Science • Carleton W. Washburne

... into shallow pans, in which most of it immediately crystallizes. The crystalline portion forms the raw sugar of commerce; the remaining part is molasses. The whole mass is then shovelled into a centrifugal machine which in a few minutes separates the ...

— Commercial Geography - A Book for High Schools, Commercial Courses, and Business Colleges • Jacques W. Redway

... main track diagonally, without seeing it— I came upon the portable engine and centrifugal pump belonging to Runnymede, set up for work at ...

— Such is Life • Joseph Furphy

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