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The artificial gravity lab

The artificial gravity lab on HackerTube: recommended by 1 Hacker News commenter across 1 month, 2022–2025.

Tom Scott

explainer · evergreen

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Tom Scott tours the rotating room artificial gravity facility at Brandeis University's Graybiel lab. It shows how humans cope with rotation-based gravity and the odd effects such as Coriolis forces.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN cites it as an intuitive demonstration of the Coriolis effect and the practical problems of spinning habitats.

people recommended it
1
separate months
1
strong recommendations
0
discussed on HN
2022–2025
“I never really got it until I watched the Tom Scott video”
— cm2187, Jan 2023, in “Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?”

What HN commenters said

5 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

cm2187Jan 2023Recommends

Coriolis force. It's pretty basic but I never really got it until I watched the Tom Scott video ▶ this video

in “Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?” · View on HN

MobiusHorizonsJun 2025Cites it

Relevant Scott Manley video: [link] Relevant tom Scott video: ▶ this video There is a lot of research, but it’s not as simple as operating under real gravity. Makes many movements harder and can result in getting sick.

in “Starcloud can’t put a data centre in space at $8.2M in one Starship” · View on HN

inambercladOct 2023Cites it

EMS = electro muscular stimulation? No, not 100%. Astronauts have very good resistance training onboard the ISS at this point. Some of them come back to earth stronger than they left. However, it turns out that your body also needs skeletal loading in order to produce strong bones. That kind of loading comes from having large forces distributed through the entire body. NASA tried a variety of shortcuts around resistance training, but none of them were satisfactory. A spinning drum is probably the best method short of artificial gravity, but it has a couple problems. A rotating reference frame creates some pretty non-intuitive effects ( ▶ this video ). Research is ongoing about just how fast a human can be spun for a long duration, although data is hard to come by. We also don't know how low of a gravity a human can stay healthy in without intervention like serious exercise. If it turns out that you need 1G, that involves a much larger spinning drum than a G/3 (Mars) or G/6 (Moon) environment. The problem is that we really have no way to simulate those environments for a human.

in “Microgravity-induced muscle atrophy in women/men in spaceflights to Moon/Mars” · View on HN

vasvirMar 2023Cites it

Artificial Gravity via rotation is no walk in the the park either. See: [link] for the long explanation. and the youtube example: ▶ this video

in “Venus is volcanically alive, new find shows” · View on HN

RetricAug 2022Cites it

The idea is much older for example 1948: [link] Various test chambers for astronauts where built to test how people respond to higher gravity / a rotating reference frame. Actually trying to do this runs into some unexpected issues in practice. Here is a Tom Scott video about a more recent example: ▶ this video

in “134.5 kg Concrete Bike [video]” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Everyday physics & science demosSpace exploration & spaceflightFundamental physicscoriolis forcerotating reference framespin gravitytom scottspace habitats