from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Centrifugal \Cen*trif"u*gal\, a. [L. centrum center + fugere to
flee.]
1. Tending, or causing, to recede from the center.
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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.
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{Centrifugal force} (Mech.), a force whose direction is from
a center.
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Note: 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.
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{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.
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