How would I calculate the g's felt?

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around calculating the g's felt by an astronaut in a rotating space station designed to simulate gravity. The subject area includes concepts of centripetal acceleration and gravitational forces.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification, Mathematical reasoning

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants explore the relationship between centripetal acceleration and gravitational acceleration, questioning the need to add 1 to the calculation. There is also a discussion about the implications of horizontal versus vertical acceleration in determining the total g's felt.

Discussion Status

Participants are actively discussing various interpretations of the problem, with some providing guidance on how to approach the calculations. The original poster expresses confusion about the relationship between the jogger's speed and the resulting g's felt, indicating a productive exchange of ideas.

Contextual Notes

The original poster mentions a homework question regarding the design of a space station and the need to calculate the g's felt by an astronaut jogging in the direction of rotation. There is a noted lack of resources in the textbook and insufficient coverage of the topic by the professor.

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How would I calculate the g's felt? I thought it was centripetal acceleration divided by gravitational acceleration, then you add 1, is this right at all??
 
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Why do you want to add 1?
 
I don't know I saw it on another website I didn't understand it, that's kinda why I am asking on the forum to see if it was right??
 
Depends on what you are after. If you want lateral, or horizontal g's from sideways acceleration, then it is just centripetal acceleration divided by g. The number of g's you feel with no acceleration is 1, straight down, but I'm guessing that's not what you are after. On the slight chance that you want to know the resultant number of g's due to a horizontal acceleration and vertical weight, it is given by Pythagorus: Square root of (1 plus the square of (the centripetal acceleration divided by g)).
 
I had a question on my HW, but my professor has yet to go over g's and the textbook I have has absolutely nothing about them neither. The question asks:

You want to design a large, permanent space
station so that no arti¯cial gravity is neces-
sary. You decide to shape it like a large coffee
can of radius 303 m and rotate it about its
central axis.
The acceleration of gravity is 9:8 m=s2 :
What rotational speed would be required to
simulate gravity? Answer in units of rad=s.
***
I know I how to do the previous part but I have not clue as the how to do the second part.
***
If an astronaut jogged in the direction of the
rotation at 3:9 m=s, how many g's would he
feel?
 
Originally posted by SsUeSbIaEs
I know I how to do the previous part but I have not clue as the how to do the second part.
In the first part you were given the acceleration and had to find the speed. This second problem is the reverse: Given the speed of the jogger, find the acceleration. krab told how to do it: find the centripetal acceleration and divide by g.

Realize that you are given the speed of the jogger relative to the space station. Don't forget to add in the speed of the space station itself, which you determined in part one. (Also: angular speed X radius = linear speed.)
 
Thanks, that helps A LOT!
 

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