Re:China's Moon mission sees first seeds sprout
by jerf on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @11:01AM
(#18912079)
Linear acceleration is equivalent to gravity. Spinning is not; it introduces the Coriolis psuedo-force or however you prefer to look at it, which allows it to be distinguished from gravity.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:China's Moon mission sees first seeds sprout
by mnw21cam on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @10:38AM
(#18921703)
I concede the point, but counter with the fact that completely flat gravitational fields are implausible, so you could technically distinguish between linear acceleration (which has the same acceleration everywhere) and acceleration due to gravity (which doesn't, and hence generates a tide).
The effect on a stationary point sized object is equivalent in all three cases. When your object moves then the spinning artificial gravity can be distinguished. When your object is no longer point sized then both gravity and spinning fake gravity can be distinguished from linear acceleration fake gravity.