[SOT] Whale Habitats?

> From: Al Globus [mailto:aglobus@...]

> I don't think rotation will help you. It is not true gravity. There
> is no attraction between the rim and a whale anywhere but in contact
> with the rim. You might get a little force on the whale because the
> water is rotating with the structure, but you have to do the fluid
> dynamics to figure out the forces and I doubt they'll be much like
> gravity in any sense.
>
> If you don't rotate, then the structure can be much bigger since only
> the hydrostatic pressure of the water needs to be dealt with.

The problem with not rotating is that whales aren't fish and need to breath fresh air. And whales have evolved to understand that fresh air is 'up'. Take away the up and you might start to have problems. Of course the smarter whales would eventually learn how to find their way back to a bubble of air located at a fixed point, but do you really want to risk a high failure rate with an endangered species?

John