Home › AP Physics 1 › Physics › Uniform Circular Motion and Gravitation › Between explaining a curved path using a fictiti…
Between explaining a curved path using a fictitious force in a rotating frame and explaining the same path using inertia in an inertial frame, which view is described as simplest and truest?
AThe rotating-frame view using fictitious forces
BNeither view is preferred over the other
CBoth views require an unidentified force
DThe inertial-frame view using only real forces
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: D. The inertial-frame view using only real forces
1. Both the rotating-frame and inertial-frame descriptions can be used to describe the same curved motion correctly.
2. In the inertial frame, inertia alone explains the path, and every force involved has a real, identifiable origin.
3. In the rotating frame, a fictitious force such as the Coriolis force must be invented, and that force has no identifiable physical source.
4. Because the inertial-frame description needs no forces without a real origin, it is described as the simplest and truest view, rather than the two views being equally preferred or equally incomplete.
_Source: OpenStax College Physics (CC BY 4.0), Ch 6 "Uniform Circular Motion and Gravitation", section 6.4 Fictitious Forces and Non-inertial Frames: The Coriolis Force_
Related questions
The Moon stays in orbit around the Earth. Which force provides its centripetal force?Why does a centripetal force change a body's direction but never its speed?A stone is whirled on a string in a horizontal circle. What supplies the centripetal forceUnder what condition does an ellipse become a circle?Kepler's third law relates the squares of the periods to which quantity?What does the line from the Sun to a planet sweep out in equal times?What shape does each planet's orbit about the Sun take, and where does the Sun sit?Besides muscle wasting, what else do astronauts lose in microgravity?