By Banji Ojewale
THE theories of the physicists and mathematicians of the 17th century concerning the dynamics of the motion of objects best illustrate the condition of the Nigerian state of the 21st century. The two striking figures of the age – the English scientist, Isaac Newton and the Dutch mathematician, Christian Huygens – led man into their complex findings in their study of the force that drives the movement of inanimate bodies, terrestrial, stratospheric or ionospheric.
Newton said the centripetal engine was responsible for the push of an object towards its centre or source or origin. All its energies willy-nilly would be concentrated on “seeking the centre,” hence the term, centripetal, from two Latin words, centrum for centre, and petere, to seek. Centripetal potency is the centre-searching capacity.
There is yet another law that worked in a distinctly opposite fashion, according to Newton. He called it the centrifugal force, again from…
Source: Vanguard Newspaper
