artificial gravity / spinning space craft.

[Donkmeister]

then lets asume that I have a bike with me and pedal in the oposite direction just as fast as the station spins, effectively cancelling my rotational velocity.

as I rode faster on the bike I would lose more and more "gravity" until it eventually stopped and even the smallest bump would see me floating free in space again

No need to bring your bike - if anyone built such a spaceship, they would obviously include a non-rotating section for zero-g thrills.

Assume the spacecraft is a long cylinder with a spinning section at the centre (i.e. artificial "gravity") and a non-spinning section at either end. As you sat in the gravity bit, you would see your crewmates in the stationary sections appear to tumble round and round whilst they floated about.

You then take a running jump into the stationary section. What happens?

Well, you carry your angular momentum with you into that section, so you hit the floor, bounce off it, collide with your crewmate, send him tumbling into another wall and so on until you steady yourself on a grab handle or lose enough energy bouncing into the cushioned walls.

 

[ColJack]

the spining section would need to be larger than the stationary section ( or spinning a lot faster for the same effect.. ) so you'd have a ladder at the side walls to climb..
as you climbed towards the center you'd get more and more weightless ..

 

[joinerjohn]

All very interesting theories.... Mind you, I'd have though Joe 90 would have known about spinning objects,,,,, After all ,, he did sit in the middle of that spinning device The BIG RAT I think it was called) every week when he was on TV.

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/j/joe90.htm

Here's the music for the series.
http://www.dan-dare.org/FreeFun/Thunderbirds/Joe90Title.mp3

 

[RigidRaider]

If you want to have some fun with a gyroscope, go and buy one of these: http://www.powerballs.com/

 

[empip]

What if a fairground 'wall of death' had a rotatable wall - sort of a cylindrical conveyor (!!)

Wall stationary, biker rides the wall as normal at a steady speed, wall is accelerated rotationally to same velocity as bike wheels a) in same direction as bike. b) in reverse direction.
What happens next, in both cases?

 

[RigidRaider]

Wall rotating at the same speed as the motorcycle: no difference, the motorcycle is still going round in tight circles, even if the wheels stop turning.

Wall rotating opposite direction: motorcycle will need to accelerate to cancel out the rotation of the wall otherwise it will fall to the bottom of the cylinder.

 

[joinerjohn]

What if a fairground 'wall of death' had a rotatable wall - sort of a cylindrical conveyor (!!)

Wall stationary, biker rides the wall as normal at a steady speed, wall is accelerated rotationally to same velocity as bike wheels a) in same direction as bike. b) in reverse direction.
What happens next, in both cases?

Eventually the rider would fall off as he wouldn't have enough forward momentum to provide the perceived gravity to keep him and his bike on the wall. Real gravity would provide him with an earthward motion.
This would apply when the wall was rotating in the opposite direction to the rider.

 

[empip]

"Yeah but... No but... Yeah but..."

 

[Nige F]

What if a fairground 'wall of death' had a rotatable wall - sort of a cylindrical conveyor (!!)

 

[Space cat]

Trying to jump across from one side of a rotating cylinder to the other is a complex business. Jumping directly towards the centre won't work because you are already moving around it.

You would have to jump in such a way as to reduce your angular momentum around the centre to zero. If your local park has one of those old-fashioned roundabouts with a flat surface right across it, set it spinning then try to roll a ball across the centre. It's not as easy as it looks.

The bicycle trick will work - up to a point. You will 'feel' lighter and lighter until your wheels lose their grip against the surface of the cylinder. At this point you'll need a little extra push to float free of the surface. After that, you'll drift across the cylinder in some uncertain direction until you hit the wall again.