Centrifugal force is a force that keeps an object stationary when it is spinning. The gravitational pull of that object towards the outside of the circular route holds it in place, or forces other objects around it to slide along the radius of the direction it is spinning.

Centrifugal force is a perceived force, not an actual force. It can only be viewed from the vantage point of the spinning object. For example, when turning in a car, the object in the seat next to us flies outward. We call that centrifugal force. Remember the law of intertia: all objects stay at rest or continue in a straight line unless acted on by an outside force. The object that flies outward is trying to continue in a straight line (the direction the car was headed before you started turning). There is just not enough friction on the seat next to you to keep the object constrained to the turn until it hits the door. If you add the vectors of movement on the turning car, it is found that the car is accelerating towards the center of the turn, not away from the cetner. This inward acceleration is called centripetal force. That feeling of being "pushed out" when tunring in a car is nothing more than resistance to the centripetal force constraining the car.

Centrifugal force (centrifugal = "center fleeing") is really the "equal and opposite" force to the centripital force, the force acting on the mass in motion. In uniform circular motion, the only acceleration is the change in the velocity vector, not its magnitude. But it takes a force to maintain this acceleration - the centripital force.

Centrifugal force is a pseudo force.A pseudo force is an imaginary force which we can just experience but cannot caliculate directly.So centrifugal force is an imaginary force acting on a body in circular or rotatory motion which drives that body away from its circular path.

Centrifugal force is the real, measurable, calculable, outward-directed, internal to matter, acceleration/Reaction, support force that is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to its action force cause, which is the centripetal or inward-directed acceleration/Action force. This pair of Newton-LAW-III-predicted-to-exist, action/reaction forces, is plain to see once one understands how an action force in the centripetal direction is able to cause an object's centripetal acceleration while also acting as the cause of the generation of its own equal and opposite, reactionary support force in the centrifugal direction. Tie a short rope to an object and whirl it about your person. Insert a tension scale anywhere between your hand and the outermost portions of the object's matter and you will be able to measure this action/reaction pairing of mutual forces at every point of insertion. Nothing imaginary here. Note that the inward-directed centripetal force is the force causing this event, including causing the generation of its own outward-directed centrifugal support force. Meanwhile, as a reactionary support force, the outward-directed centrifugal force is never the cause of any event. Yet it is not imaginary for its presence is required by Newton's LAW III and further by the tension scale which will never give a reading if one attempts to pull it from only one side. Two opposing forces are required here for the scale to display a force reading. There is your proof that an outward-directed centrifugal force does indeed exist. Be wary of any explanation of centrifugal force that does not employ a scale. Ethan Skyler November 21, 2008 [Ref} Newton's LAW III “To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or, the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts.” Follow this link to read about testing for centripetal and centrifugal forces present for an object placed on the dash of a turning automobile. http://www.UniversalPhysics.org/question_5.html

Centrifugal force is a fictitious force created as one way to solve certain systems in a rotating reference frame. Centrifugal force is not a real force, just like the Coriolis Force. In an inertial reference frame, no such thing as Centrifugal Force exists. It is mere the illusion due to inertia being mistaken for a force.