Door and energy efficiency

someGorilla

By mistake... I dropped a 2 exponent along the way. It's actually (pi^2)/12, so the hinged door is better.
Calculate the kinetic energy of the two doors. The one for the rotating door is [itex]\frac{1}{2}Iω^{2}[/itex] where [itex]I=\int^{l}_{0}ρx^{2}dx[/itex] with ρ linear density and [itex]l[/itex] width of the door.
I was writing a lengthier answer when I hit something on the page and lost it all so you'll forgive me if I let you do the details :)

haruspex

OTOH, if you don't need to open the door all the way, sliding may be better. E.g. if the upright on the catch side of the door is set against an orthogonal wall and you need clearance w < l between wall and door then the break even is (1-w/l) = cos(w√3/l), i.e. w is about 78% of l.

sophiecentaur

They don't use swing doors on any space ship I have ever seen in a film. Could that be relevant?
(And they always go Hisssss)