Is a force(tension force to be exact) that makes a body follow a curved path with a center.
The force’s direction is always to the instantaneous center of the path and orthogonal to the motion of the body.
The body’s acceleration can be calculated as: a= v^2/r (where v squared is the magnitude scalar(hence only the speed) and not the complete vector direction of the velocity)
The net center pulling forces(tension force and other such as gravity) combine the centripetal force in most cases: v^2/r = ∑F(center)/m (which is the summation of all the forces involved pulling inward to the circle center).
