it's ambiguous.
No it isn't.
Is the string an integer? A floating point number? Is it hex, binary, or octal?
Perl will figure out which it is automatically and correctly every time
because Solaris is still a niche market,
There, fixed that for you.
Reading through the discussion above and below, it's clear that posters are talking about different systems - this is why the first thing an applied mathematician or physicist does is to draw a diagram, and to state any assumptions. For example I think gbutler69 was talking about a system with the "hand" moving in a circle to impart a force to maintain the kinetic energy of the rock, where KE was being lost to air friction, and the responders were assuming a frictionless system with a rigid, fixed "hand".
Yes, that is what I've been saying all along. They keep wanting to talk about the system as the ROCK and what forces are acting on it in its non-inertial frame of reference. Or they want to talk only about the forces acting on the rock in the inertial frame of reference. I was talking about the forces acting within the system of hand, string, rock. Where there is clearly a notion of Centrifugal Force that agrees with all accepted definitions of the term and is commonly used in engineering calculations etc when determining internal stresses of a system. Thank You kindly for bringing further clarification to the point.
A reactive centrifugal force is the reaction force to a centripetal force. A mass undergoing curved motion, such as circular motion, constantly accelerates toward the axis of rotation. This centripetal acceleration is provided by a centripetal force, which is exerted on the mass by some other object. In accordance with Newton's Third Law of Motion, the mass exerts an equal and opposite force on the object. This is the reactive centrifugal force. it is directed away from the center of rotation, and is exerted by the rotating mass on the object that originates the centripetal acceleration.[10][11][12] This conception of centrifugal force is very different from the fictitious force (i.e. the centrifugal force of common experience). As they both are given the same name, they may be easily conflated. Whereas the 'fictitious force' acts on the body moving in a circular path, the 'reactive force' is exerted by the body moving in a circular path onto some other object. The former is useful in analyzing the motion of the body in a rotating reference frame. The latter is not. The concept of the reactive centrifugal force is used often in mechanical engineering sources that deal with internal stresses in rotating solid bodies.[13] Newton's reactive centrifugal force still appears in some sources, and is often referred to as just centrifugal force rather than as reactive centrifugal force.
used is when applied to the rock and the string
Correction: I meant, "...when applied to the HAND and the string..."
The sooner all the animals are extinct, the sooner we'll find their money. - Ed Bluestone