A rotating space station is said to create “artificial gravity”—a loosely-define

Question

A rotating space station is said to create “artificial gravity”—a loosely-defined term used for an acceleration that would be crudely similar to gravity. The outer wall of the rotating space station would become a floor for the astronauts, and centripetal acceleration supplied by the floor would allow astronauts to exercise and maintain muscle and bone strength more naturally than in non-rotating space environments. If the space station is 200 m in diameter, what angular velocity would produce an “artificial gravity” of 9.80 m/s2 at the rim?

Explanation / Answer

As the centripetal acceleration will be equal to w2×r. Where w is angular velocity and r is the distance between the point and axis of rotation. Hence in this case 9.80 = w2×100, i.e. w(angular velocity)= 0.3130rad/sec.

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