The centrifugal force is the force exerted on all parts of a body in circular motion that drives it away from the center along the tangent. Generating circular motions also requires a second force (called centripetal) that keeps bodies on the circular orbit. Drawing on the perceptive analysis of motion by René Descartes (1596-1650), Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) was the first to provide a precise geometric explanation of circular motion as the resultant of the equilibrium between centripetal and centrifugal forces.