Questions about the Coriolis Effect

Here's something I wrote some time ago. It involves a
bicycle ride in a spinning habitat. Anzu's habitat is
two thousand metres in diameter. This sample is 1,177
words.

I'm going to go ahead and describe this bike ride,
because it's a little bit different than the one this
morning, and a lot different than what goes on in your
time on Earth.

When I rode to school this morning, I was riding east.
Oo, directions

OK. My habitat spins to provide simulated gravity.
We've already gone over that. Now, the direction of
spin is called "east" and the opposite direction is
called "west." This is the same as on Earth. Now, on
Earth, if you are facing north then east is to your
right and west is to your left. So here, we designate
as "north" the direction you have to face in order to
have west to your left and east to your right. You
can ride to the east or the west all day and never
gain or lose any altitude.

So this morning I rode towards the east in order to
get to school. I was riding in the same direction as
the habitat is spinning. Now, what this means is that
my twenty-five KmPH or so was added to the habitat's
speed, which means that I was rotating a little bit
faster than the habitat in general. Thus, my weight
increased a tiny bit. If I'd been riding to the west,
it would have gone down a tiny bit. In truth, it's
too little to notice.

But now I was riding north, at right angles to the
rotation, and I was gaining altitude. This caused
something called Coriolis to come into play. I'm not
going to try to go into exactly what that is, but will
say that it causes people in a rotating environment
(you know, like me?) to feel a force pressing one to
the west when riding uphill and to the east when
riding downhill. From my point of view, it seems as
if my whole world tilts just a bit. The faster I gain
or lose altitude, the more the habitat seems to tilt.
It isn't really tilting, and it doesn't seem to tilt
for those not gaining or losing altitude.

Now, since I was going due north and uphill, this
means that I was being tilted by Coriolis to the left,
and had to tilt right to compensate. It isn't a large
effect, and everybody learns to deal with it before
school age. I've heard of people from here going to
Earth, getting on a bike, and falling over because
they lean when going up or down a hill.

So what you would have seen is nineteen high school
girls (one of them naked except for shoes and
protective gear) and a woman of about thirty riding in
a straight line uphill and all of us leaning to the
right, in the same way that you would lean if making a
right turn. It would look a bit weird to you, but not
to us. Of course, to us it seemed we were riding
upright and everything else was leaning.

I was really glad that I already had this tilting/
leaning stuff down since about five, because I really
wasn't paying much attention to the bike ride. I'd
made this trip so many times I could do it in my sleep.
No, I was noticing every person who was along the
trail, every person who watched us ride by. Every
person, in other words, who got a look at naked me.
There were a few whistles, and a few "WOO!" I just
pretended my face wasn't burning and pedaled on.

As we rode higher, the going got steeper, but we also
got lighter, so it wasn't particularly difficult.
When we reached a certain point our weight was only
half of what it was before, and several metal-lined
grooves appeared on either side of the bicycle trail.
These tracks were just a bit wider than our tires, and
there were several side by side to the right, and
several more side by side to the left. I steered into
one of them, and with a little titty-jiggling bump
settled into the bike track. These tracks are lined
with what are essentially gear teeth, which interact
with similar teeth on the sides of our tires. This
gives us traction as the trail approaches vertical.

This is where I had to stand up and lean forward, as
well as to the right. We all did, because as our
bikes get closer to vertical we would overbalance back-
wards if we didn't do the whole stand-and-lean thing.
This too is a skill we learn at about six, and I did
it automatically. Usually I don't even think about it,
but this time, as I leaned way out over the handlebars,
I was very aware of the fact that whoever was right
behind could pretty much look up inside of me. Hope
she liked the view.

Finally we got to the point where even leaning, gear
teeth, and weight decreases couldn't make bicycling
practical. This was about fifteen percent G, and we
were almost straight up vertical. Sure enough, there
was a terrace with a bike rack. I dismounted on the
fly, like always. Again, I've done it so many times
that it's automatic. This time, though, I was suddenly
aware of just how much it makes me jiggle, and of how
far apart I have to splay my legs on landing to do it
right. For the first time in years, I actually
stumbled.

"You OK, James?" Coach Carrick asked.

"Yeah," I answered as I locked my bike in the rack,
"What I get for trying to be modest while in the
Program."

She chuckled at that, and so did some of the girls.

"I think," she grinned, "that you can pretty much
forget about modesty for the rest of the week."

to do with riding bicycles>

I wasn't even fully dry and hadn't combed my hair when
I met Botilda.

"My God," she said, "you look like you're half a metre
from the mountain top."

"More like half a centimetre," I croaked as we bounded
our way to the bike racks.

"Anzu, your lip is bleeding!"

I touched my finger to my lip and, sure enough, there
was blood. I had bitten that hard.

The ride down was much the same as the ride up, except
that this time Coriolis pulled us to the east. It was
still left, from our point of view, and we still tilted
right to compensate. And of course, to us it seemed
that the world was tilting, rather than us. We gained
a bit of speed coming down, and so the tilting was more
pronounced.

It didn't take us long to get to my place, and soon the
bikes were stowed away and we were entering the
apartment I call home. I could smell supper already;
probably a venison casserole. Dad loved cooking with
venison, and Mom swore by its health benefits. As much
as I enjoy it, though, I was hungry for something else
right now.