I don’t know why I’m so obsessed with this. I know that rotational gravity is real. I’ve been on a tilt-a-whirl, I just don’t fully understand WHY it works.
Here is a scenario to illustrate what I mean: I am an astronaut inside a “hollow donut” type ship like in 2001. There is no air, we are in space. No relative gravity whatsoever from anything else. I am inside the ship, it is not moving or spinning and I am not close to the hull or anything.
From what I understand if the ship begins to “spin” to induce the artificial gravity effect, I will be affected by it and pushed out toward the outer wall or hull.
Why? What is ACTING on me. I know it might sound like a weird question. I love science and am convinced by it 100% I just feel like I don’t get what exactly is going on.
In: Physics
You aren’t being pushed towards the outer wall. You are being thrown off into space, but there just happens to be something there to impede you.
Think about it this way: If you pick up a baseball and spin your arm in a circle, what direction does the ball go when it is released? It doesn’t continue to go in a circle, right? It goes flying off in whatever direction it was travelling when you released it. An object in motion stays in motion until something else acts on it. The ball is constantly being accelerated off in some direction, but as long as you hold onto the ball it can’t go flying away.
This is what is happening in the space ship. The person has been accelerated, but they are constrained by the hull of the ship. If the hull magically disappeared, they would go flying off into space in a straight line direction. But the hull is there, so it “catches” them and redirects their motion.
Just like the way your hand constantly “catches” the ball until you are ready to release it, the hull constantly “catches” you to prevent you from being thrown away from the ship.
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