Plural of centrifuge; machines that spin containers at high speed to separate substances of different densities using centrifugal force.
From centrifuge (noun from Latin centrum + fugere) pluralized with -es. The machine was named in the 1800s for the outward-fleeing force it generates.
Modern centrifuges can spin at 100,000+ rotations per minute, creating forces 600,000 times stronger than Earth's gravity—they're essentially the closest thing we have to artificial gravity, and they're in nearly every hospital and research lab.
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