A space centrifuge...

[imported_Hamzter]

I was thinking the other day about how feasable a spinning disc (like in Halo...) or torus would actually be. I'm talking about a relatively small scale one, less than 100 meters in diameter, anything bigger would be quite weighty and very difficult to build. After thinking for a while, i realised that you'd get some wierd effects, like if you happened to be running round the station, you'd get heavier or lighter depending on your direction. If you ran fast enough in the opposite direction of spin, you could actually totally counteract the stations simulated gravity, and end up floating until you met with the ceiling or wall (ow). I imagine throwing things would be banned, as you might accidentally knock someone out half way round the station...

Would this effect of constantly changing gravity make you feel ill? Coriaulis (sp?) forces might also play with your head a bit, altho i don't know if they're significant...

 

[blackllotus]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=50&threadid=1926226&enterthread=y

 

[Mark R]

Yeah, these problems can be significant with small scale systems, but improve as the scale is increased.

A 50 m radius system, would have an edge velocity of about 40 m s-1, so running could produce significant changes in the net velocity and hence centrifugal force.
Additionally, the rotation speed would need to be about 0.07 s-1 (4 rpm), which would have severe coriolis effects. If you stood still and dropped a baseball, it would fly off in a strange curved path.

Unfortunately, these things scale up according to the sqrt of the radius.

However, by the time you get to a 1 km radius, this would probably be tolerable. Rotation speed of 1 rpm, edge velocity of 100 m s-1. A much less obvious curve to the 'floor', and falling objects would fall in a reasonably straight line.

No idea what the physiological effects of the coriolis force - but I suspect that it could cause severe nausea if you turned your head, and would likely make coordination of movements quite awkward. Probably the first system to be affected would be eye movements (eye movements are so fast, that they can't be corrected while they are taking place) so people may find it very difficult to look at things, or read. However, on a large scale system, these effects would probably be less severe.

 

[Agent11]

I will not hold it against you, but the concept has been around in sci-fi literature for a very long time.

I think that the US and other space age countries should use the idea not only because it will allow people to stay in space longer, but because it will really grab peoples attention. . It would look like we are actually in the year 2006.

 

[Mark R]

I've been trying to work out what would happen to water going down a plug-hole on one of these ringworlds.

I can't work it out. This is going to annoy me.

 

[imported_Rat]

Originally posted by: Mark R
I've been trying to work out what would happen to water going down a plug-hole on one of these ringworlds.

I can't work it out. This is going to annoy me.

It would sink, like everything else.

 

[CycloWizard]

Originally posted by: Mark R
I've been trying to work out what would happen to water going down a plug-hole on one of these ringworlds.

I can't work it out. This is going to annoy me.

Its rotation would probably not be influenced by the station's rotation (except due to errors in its rotation, such as wobbling ). It would instead depend on external gravitational fields that might impact it. You could think of the rotation as essentially a flow instability, brought about by disturbances (i.e. non-normal forces), that is not a necessary part of the water's flow into the drain. In the absence of a rotating (i.e. tangential) force, the water would simply flow straight (radially) inwards into the drain.

 

[imported_Hamzter]

Originally posted by: Agent11
I will not hold it against you, but the concept has been around in sci-fi literature for a very long time.

I think that the US and other space age countries should use the idea not only because it will allow people to stay in space longer, but because it will really grab peoples attention. . It would look like we are actually in the year 2006.

Hehe, I know the idea's been around for a long time, I couldn't tell u who first thought it up though. I don't think there's enough benefit from building one at the moment when weighed up against the cost, altho spinning a station on the end of a long cable with a counterweight on the end might be a bit easier on the budget.

As for the water down the plug hole, i believe coriorlis forces would effect the flow of water, but it would depend on how big the ring was. On earth I've been told it's only enough to make a sink full of water rotate 2 or 3 times a day, I'd imagine it would get more significant with smaller rings. I've never understood the coriorlis effect tho, and can't really be bothered to read up on it

 

[JSSheridan]

I did some reading on O'Neill cylinders on Wiki. The text claims that NASA experiments showed that motion sickness would be rare due to the coriolis effects in the inner ear. You can also turn your head to feel spin and counterspin directions.