Re: [OFFTOPIC] Re: linux kernel hackers discover new theory of relativity!
H. Peter Anvin (hpa@transmeta.com)
4 Dec 1998 08:51:02 GMT
Followup to: <19981204020404.A15607@iki.fi>
By author: Jonas Munsin <jmunsin@iki.fi>
In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
>
> On Thu, Dec 03, 1998 at 10:16:54AM -0500, Christophe Dupre wrote:
> > Babylon 5 is closer to the reality of physics - the spinning
> > station creates artificial gravity, but only for people standing
> > on the inside walls of the cylinder. Those who are near of
> > rotation axis are in zero-gravity. This is not gravity guys, it's
> > centrifugal force, the same that pushes you against your car's
> > window when you take a sharp turn.
>
> No it's not. Your "centrifugal force" is something you invent when you (quite
> wrongly) treat an accelerating reference frame as an inertial one. I strongly
> suggest you go look up centripetal and centrifugal force in any first-year
> university book on physics (University Physics - Benson, page 105 in the
> revisited edition is one place to start) before continuing this arguement.
>
Well, general relativity lets you treat any frame as reference. If
you use station as reference, the acceleration of (large amounts of!)
mass outside the station generates a gravity field inside.
Newtonian mechanics distinguish between gravity and inertia, general
relativity sees them as the same thing from different reference
frames.
-hpa
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