Eli5: How does centripetal force work?
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Centripetal force is a force that pushes your inwards/towards the center of something.
So say you go on the carnival ride where you stand against the wall and then the ride spins really fast and you feel stuck against the wall.
When that’s happening, your body’s momentum doesn’t want to keep spinning, it wants to just fling out of the ride, but the wall is keeping you in, exerting a force on your body.
That force is directed towards the center of the ride, that’s the centripetal force, the wall keeping you in
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