Questions about the Coriolis Effect

Coriolis forces are motion vectors. They can be explained in simple
terms, but at the risk of over simplifying it... just like the false
equivocation that living in a centrifuge is "just like gravity," when
it's more similar to living in a tumble drier. :-) It's not that you
have real "rotational inertia," since the axis of rotation is overhead,
but rather that your feet spin past faster than the rest of you, with a
net effect of most things (even fluids) rolling counter-spin.

If you are riding a bike in a rotating station, you'll experience
"fake-G" in different ways relating to the spin. Riding the direction
of the spin adds your motion to the motion (and centrifuge effect) of
the station. So it will feel a bit like pedaling uphill. Pedaling
counter-spin will feel more like downhill, because you get closer to
free-fall the closer you approach the spin rate of the station. But
now, pointed counter-spin, you turn left... What happens? 1) Your
vestibular (inner ear) system has to adjust, from feeling like tumbling
backward, to feeling like your head is shifting right (counter-spin)
over your wheels (pro-spin). 2) If you balance correctly, you're
leaning slightly left to keep upright. 3) You now start to adjust to
the feeling that the left/uphill world is tumbling over your head and
your brain is trying to roll out your right ear.

You're actually better off without a working vestibular system in such
events. (Old sea-faring crews sometimes favored "deaf-mutes" who were
more immune to sea sickness.) You can get acclimated to most any
"still" position during rotation, but once you shift your head, you are
tumbling a new direction and lose orientation. The more abrupt the
shift, the more jarring the change.

- Twisty

On 09/11/2010 06:03 AM, csmyth3025 wrote: