Rotating Mirrors

From: "Combs, Mike"
To:
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 9:44 AM
Subject: RE: [spacesettlers] Re: Rotating Mirrors

[snikt]
Actually, no. In any rotating structure, any floor built such that all
parts of it are level is always going to have a curvature. You can't get
around that. The greater the radius of curvature, the less visually
apparent the curvature would be, but there would always be some.

I don't know if I made myself clear. I was not talking about floors
following the curvature, I was talking about *parallel* floors perpendicular
to the centrifugal force just at the line connecting the center of the
sphere to the center of rotation, *not* following the curvature. Those
floors would indeed be visually flat, though people would feel them inclined
if they get far from the aforementioned line.

However, if the radius is big enough relatively to the dumbbell spheres,
then the inclination even at the border of the spheres would be *so* small
that in fact people would not be able to perceive it. Consider for instance
dumbbell spheres 100 meters in diameter and a rotation radius of 10 Km - a
person located at the border of a sphere would experience an inclination of
just about half a degree. Well, I have walked through streets that I thought
to be completely flat, but then I saw that they were inclined a few degrees
by watching the line where the buildings meet the sidewalks - so I think
that a half degree inclination is probably below human perception.

[snikt]
Regards,

Regards,

Mike Combs

Lucio Coelho