[Jeff]

Yoda - seeing that you are at the end of the game, and my overactive mind has forced me into an overtime time period, I will address this post to other forum members who may be following this debate (game).

I have thought of another example.

Imagine five ice skaters skating on an ice rink while holding hands. Imagine that they travel at the same rate of speed in a straight line direction, so that they are all in a perfectly straight line. Imagine that they all stop exerting any active force to propel themselves forward, and that they are all coasting at the same speed.

Now imagine that that the ice skater at the one end of the line (which I will call the central end of the line) abruptly brakes to a sudden stop and then spins in a circle around the axis of his stationary feet. His extended arm will then spin around his axis of rotation and create a circle of rotation of a finite radius. His extended arm will exert a pull force on the second ice skater that will cause the second ice skater to passively rotate in a circle at roughly the same rpm as the first skater. This transmitted pull-force phenomenon will occur down the line of skaters. The fifth skater (last in line) will travel fastest and also transcribe a circle on the ice and that circle will have the greatest radius. If the fifth skater is traveling in a circle due to passive pulling forces, then there must be a centripetal force in play - even though the pulling force is essentially circular in nature. Not only is there a centripetal force in play, but the fundamental source of that centripetal force is the fact that the first skater's extended arm is traveling in a circular manner around the axis of rotation (the first skater's feet).

Jeff.