Lu,
You do make some valid points. Once out of college, there is more learning to be done. I don't buy that there is forgetting to be done. If that were the case then might as well hire high school grads to design airplanes.
What is needed is not a good memory or an ability to quote a book, but an understanding of what is in the book. Apply that understanding to the way things are really done, and you have a useful college grad.
Most of the people posting here fall in that category. Succeeding in whatever they do, but also having an understanding of it that goes beyond company technical training, or the like.
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You asked, "If a blade separates from the rotorhead what is the force that sends it flying off the rotorhead."
You must first accept and understand what Newton meant by "An object in motion stays in motion in a straight line unless compelled to move by a force impressed upon it." The blade is in motion and is being compelled to move away from a straight line by the force impressed upon it by the rotor hub, acting towards the center of rotation. Detach the blade suddenly and that force is no longer being impressed upon the blade. Now the blade is free to move in a straight line.
Thus, the force that sends the blade flying off doesn't exist. There is a force that keeps the blade on and it's absence causes the blade to fly off.
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You said, "I think you and the others that are deeply involved in engineering studies all think I am an idiot for addressing centrifugal instead of centripetal force."
I sincerely hope that nobody thinks you're an idiot for that reason. Addressing centrifugal force is okay, as long as you understand it. It's not a completely sound method of describing ALL aspects of rotational dynamics, but it is VERY useful in understanding some of them.
Cheers,
[ 30 November 2001: Message edited by: heedm ]