Coriolis force and predicted effects?

Forum: SSI-List
Thread: Coriolis force and predicted effects?

# 19265 bydanj_caslaw on Feb. 1, 2004, 10:29 p.m.
Member since 2022-08-22

I have a few questions that I hope you won't mind answering,
relating to Coriolis force, and how it would affect normal
activities that people carry out.

I'm thinking that simple little things like placing a pen on a desk
would be very different, you couldn't just drop it down, you'd have
to set it down to prevent it ending up somewhere other than where
you wanted it. And this would affect every object, as well as every
person, aboard, so how would people in space handle everyday
activities in that situation?

Also, how much is known about how Coriolis force would affect such
things as people's physiology, and the way people moved, compared to
the way we 'move' on Earth(possibly silly illustration - our arms
move off to one side, being 'acted on' by C-force, as we swing
them)? Would people be able to 'feel' this force acting on them?

Is Coriolis the only force that would act on people in a space
colony? Would it or any other 'force'(effect of rotation) act in
different ways depending on the size of the space habitat?