3 ms·
Pour a glass of water and hold it loosely between your thumb and index finger (tightly enough that it won't fall, but loose enough that it can swing freely). Th
by JshWright 16y ago
Pour a glass of water and hold it loosely between your thumb and index finger (tightly enough that it won't fall, but loose enough that it can swing freely). Then take it outside and swing it in a big vertical circle. You'll be surprised how slowly you can swing it while still keeping the water in the glass.
Just like the glass of water though, if the plane were to stop rolling, the tea would immediately spill. It has nothing to do with "bending gravity", simply the reactive centrifugal force imparted by the turn itself.
- mmaunder 16y agoThink of the wings as the glass and the fuselage as the tea in the glass. The pilot's glass of tea is imitating what the wings and fuselage that contain the glass are doing. If the pilot turns the plane at the correct rate, it's a 1 G maneuver. If he turns a little too fast (like spinning your arm too fast) the downward acceleration relative to the fuselage becomes greater than 1 G. If he turns too slowly, the downward acceleration is less than 1G and the tea might spill. I use the term downward acceleration because "G Force" is not a term that physicists like to use.
- kokofoo 16y agoCentrifugal force is also used to achieve the concept called artificial gravity, which is the reason why characters in Star Trek walk around like normal in their starships.
- JeffL 16y agoWhat? No it isn't. http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Gravity_plating http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Gravity_plating
- dmoney 16y agoSome sci-fi has cylindrical ships or space stations spun for gravity, but in Star Trek they have "gravity plating", so the ships don't have to spin. A convenient plot device to cover the fact that they didn't have the budget to shoot every episode aboard the vomit comet.