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From: desj@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (David desJardins)
Newsgroups: net.sci
Subject: Re: How will it fall?
Message-ID: <13606@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Sat, 3-May-86 05:05:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.13606
Posted: Sat May  3 05:05:53 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 4-May-86 05:51:19 EDT
References: <632@tekigm2.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: desj@brahms.UUCP (David desJardins)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 24
Keywords: physics

In article <632@tekigm2.UUCP> marks@tekigm2.UUCP (Mark D. Salzman) writes:
>Picture yourself on a space station similar to the one used in 2001
>(i.e. a spinning ring or toroid). You are standing in the middle of
>one of the decks near the outside edge of the ring and the spin of
>the station is providing a "gravity" about equal to that found on
>the surface of the Earth.
>
>If you were to drop a ball (a simple release with no additional
>forces applied), would it fall straight down (along a line through
>the center of the ring and the point of release) or would it follow
>another path (relative to the aforementioned line)?

   Assuming a vacuum, or that air resistance effects are negligible, there
would be no significant forces on the ball, and so it would follow a straight
line in space.  Of course since you are moving in a great circle this line
would not appear straight to you.
   The actual path would appear to move downward with the acceleration you
would expect, and would curve antispinward (i.e. in the direction against
the one the ring is spinning in.  The curvature would depend, of course,
on the diameter of the ring.  If the ring were small enough, or the ball
was allowed to fall for long enough, it would also be noted that it would
start to fall slightly more slowly than expected.

   -- David desJardins