Artificial Gravity in Interstellar - Was it a plothole?

Replies

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  Ramani Aswath

  Anoop Kumar

  spinning about only one axis, let say Y axis. then what about X axis?

  Any spinning object is a gyro. Its axis of rotation is invariant in space. An object spinning in the Y axis will remain so and will not allow spin in another axis. Instead the object will precess.
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  Anoop Kumar

  I agree sir, (I just took Y axis as reference) my question is if it is rotating in Y axis. Gravity will be created along Y axis only, right. There is no gravity in X axis.
  Let say if there is no friction. Even a slight disbalance will throw you out along X axis.
  As a gyro it will try to balance it out but, as object (person) is not attached to system they will slip out.
  Am I right here?
• 

  Ramani Aswath

  Consider the Earth. Its gravity is towards the centre all over the surface. Because of the 40000 km circumference we do not feel it. Suppose the Earth was just 6 meters diameter. Two people standing with their feet 2 meters apart will have their heads 3 meters apart. Things get exaggerated in the small confines of the space station. The artificial gravity always act on the inner circumference of the station like on earth towards earth's centre.
  On earth also there is no gravity in the other axes. Things do not move away in the horizontal direction if given a push. On earth also a perso putting a foot on a banana peel takes a toss.
  
  Of course the magnitude of the gravity will be much less so things look a bit odd. One has to adjust.