Which three factors affect centrifugal force in a moving object?

• A. Speed, acceleration, mass
• B. Radius, velocity, temperature
• C. Mass, speed, radius
• D. Mass, time, radius

Answer: (C)

When an object moves in a circle, the outward effect we call centrifugal force scales with three things: its mass, how fast it’s going, and the size of the circular path. The standard expression for its magnitude is F_c = m v^2 / r (or F_c = m ω^2 r in terms of angular speed). This makes it clear why those three factors matter: increasing the mass directly increases the force; increasing the speed increases the force by the square of the speed; and changing the radius changes the force in the way shown by the denominator (for a given linear speed, a larger radius lowers F_c; with fixed angular speed, a larger radius raises F_c). Temperature and time don’t appear in this relationship, and acceleration is tied to speed and radius via a_c = v^2 / r rather than acting as an independent factor. So the factors that determine centrifugal force are mass, speed, and radius.