Science & Tech

inertial force

physics
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Also known as: effective force, fictitious force, pseudoforce, reversed effective force
Also called:
Fictitious Force

inertial force, any force invoked by an observer to maintain the validity of Isaac Newton’s second law of motion in a reference frame that is rotating or otherwise accelerating at a constant rate. For specific inertial forces, see centrifugal force; Coriolis force; d’Alembert’s principle.