Cen*trif"u*gal, n. A
centrifugal machine.
Cen*trif"u*gal (?), a. [L.
centrum center + fugere to flee.]
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.
☞ 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. Clerk Maxwell.
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.