It happens to all of us. We reach into the fridge and pull out the ketchup bottle only to that find the remainder of ketchup is clinging for dear life at the bottom of the bottle. There are two well known practices of getting the remainder of the ketchup out of the bottle. Either you place the bottle on its head and wait for gravity to do its job, or you shake the ketchup down. But, I'm here to tell you there is a third and more efficient way to get that last bit of ketchup out of the bottle. Centripetal force is plainly defined at the force exerted on an object towards the center when moving in a circular motion. Centrifugal force is the opposing force exerted on an object to move it away from the center. Both of these forces are required to understand what is happening in our ketchup bottle.
This causes an unbalanced force to act on the ketchup. Remember what Newton's First Law states? "An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion in the same direction and speed unless acted upon by an unbalanced force." Therefore, the ketchup accelerates away from the center of circular motion until it hits the lid, which subsequently exerts the centripetal force towards the center of the circular motion to stop the flow of ketchup.
Give this technique a "whirl" the next time you need to get the remaining bit of ketchup out of the bottle and impress your friends and family with your knowledge of Physics!
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AuthorEnjoys reading, listening to TedTalks, and discussing new concepts with others. Archives
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