Inertial Force
A fictitious force that arises in accelerating (noninertial) reference systems. For an accelerating body, the inertial force is considered as a body force whose resultant acts at the object's centre of gravity in a direction opposite to the acceleration. The magnitude of the force is the mass of the object times the magnitude of the acceleration.
See also: Centrifugal Force, Coriolis Force.
Subjects: Physics