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
In your example, you would not start to drift toward the wall. In your/the inertial frame, there is no force on you, and therefore you do not experience acceleration. In the rotating frame of the ship, the centrifugal force on you would exactly counter the Coriolis force on you, since in that frame of reference you are the one moving around the ship.
In practice, rotational gravity works by causing everything to rotate with the ship. If the ship is filled with vaccum, and you are not touching the walls or anything, the ships rotation does not affect you (until you drift into a now rapidly moving wall)
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