Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!wanginst!ulowell!ci-dandelion!talcott!husc6!harvard!cmcl2!seismo!brl-adm!brl-smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: net.sci
Subject: Re: How will it fall?
Message-ID: <502@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 2-May-86 17:35:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.502
Posted: Fri May  2 17:35:08 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 6-May-86 07:29:34 EDT
References: <632@tekigm2.UUCP>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.ARPA
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL)
Lines: 27

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)?

Once you remove constraining forces from the ball (i.e., let go),
you can apply Newton's law of inertia: the ball will continue in
a straight line with the velocity it had at the moment of release.
(Actually, things are very slightly complicated by the fact that
this experiment is being done in orbit rather than in empty space,
but that can be ignored for purposes of a first-order discussion.)

An observer attached to the space station at the point of release
would see the ball follow a curved path toward the outer wall.  It
would not be a radial path, since the observer is subject to an
acceleration whose direction changes as he moves (always centrally
directed).

You can see some of the effects by playing with chalky marbles on
a kid's phonograph turntable.