Ken Peters

The author was in a plane wreck in Africa, almost struck by lightning several times, almost crushed by a boulder the size of a refrigerator, in a rollover car accident, and attacked by two eagles on a mountain. All this happened before 1980. With God’s help and blessing, I made it past the year 2000.

A car is traveling 30 mph (44 ft/sec) around a100 ft radius circle. A 10 lb sledge hammer with a 2 ft wood handle is attached to the ceiling of the car with a wire so that the steel 10 lb mass appears to be floating 1 inch off the floor of the car. A 0.1 lb force in a sideways direction, the mass easily moves.

What is the centrifugal force on the 10 lb mass?

Sir Isaac Newton would calculate 193.6 lb-ft/sec2. This number is way too large! If you were holding a 10 lb mass in the back seat, is there a 193.6 lb-ft/sec2 force trying to pull this 10 lb mass away?

Although this problem is not in “Capture the Moon”, the book would suggest that the true centrifugal force on the 10 lb mass would be a little less than 2 lb. In a crude run on this experiment, the author read a little less than 2 lb.