Gravity.

[Omits]

How would one try to justify (in a novel to a hard science type reading the story) a Spacecraft in which the occupants did not float around but were 'anchored' to a floor.

PS (later edit) I'm not talking artificial gravity here but a Spacecraft which generates a gravity field directing objects to a floor.

 

[Swank]

The three most common are:
Rotating inertia
Constant acceleration
Magnets/velcro

Fictional artificial gravity/inertial control. These usually go together to explain why the crew not only have gravity but aren't thrown around by changes in direction or velocity. In Star Trek it is implied that the system can be momentarily overwhelmed, causing actors to fall out of chairs rather than turn into liquids.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Inertial dampners?

Tbh the less you explain how something works, the less likely you are that someone will find holes in it.

 

[AllanR]

I doubt there is a hard science way to have a space ship operate like a naval ship --as they do in Star Trek (stacked decks, each with independent gravity and direction of travel being perpendicular to that force of gravity)

 

[Omits]

I doubt there is a hard science way to have a space ship operate like a naval ship --as they do in Star Trek (stacked decks, each with independent gravity and direction of travel being perpendicular to that force of gravity)

Maybe, maybe not! When we have control of gravity (if ever) we can sort out how to configure it. We must keep dreaming!

 

[Omits]

Inertial dampners?

Tbh the less you explain how something works, the less likely you are that someone will find holes in it.

Earth is moving at a fair lick. I wonder how are we isolated from the spin and orbit (he asks in his ignorance).

 

[paranoid marvin]

I take my scientific knowledge from the great Douglas Adams:

'The thing to realise about flying is not to realise that it is, in fact, impossible, or then suddenly gravity will notice you again and take exception to being ignored.'

This is true in respect of a number of things humans are - or are not - capable of. As soon as possible after birth we are informed of the things that we are incapable of doing, and then spend the rest of our lives trying to conform to these expectations.

 

[BAYLOR]

I take my scientific knowledge from the great Douglas Adams:

'The thing to realise about flying is not to realise that it is, in fact, impossible, or then suddenly gravity will notice you again and take exception to being ignored.'

This is true in respect of a number of things humans are - or are not - capable of. As soon as possible after birth we are informed of the things that we are incapable of doing, and then spend the rest of our lives trying to conform to these expectations.

And the Wisdom of Douglass Adams is not to be questioned.

And gravity really does take a dim view people and things that have the gall to defy it . In fact , it takes it quite personally and never forgets .

 

[Swank]

Earth is moving at a fair lick. I wonder how are we isolated from the spin and orbit (he asks in his ignorance).

We can't feel the spin, but it is why we have the gulf stream and other Coriolis effects.

Orbit is rotation balanced by gravity to effectively give weightlessness. You would have to be orbiting around something really tiny for the Coriolis to be felt - and that might not happen anyway because anything that tiny to orbit around will cause time dilation due to gravity.

 

[StilLearning]

Earth is moving at a fair lick. I wonder how are we isolated from the spin and orbit (he asks in his ignorance)

The quick answer is: The Earth's rate of turn about it's axis is about one in 24 hrs, it's rate of turn about the sun about 1 in 365 days. Sit on anything turning at such slow rates and I guarantee you won't feel squat.

The long answer: Yes, the straight-line equivalent speeds of both turn and orbit are huge. But you feel a force from a change in speed, or a change in direction - NOT just having a constant straight line speed (if you want to check this get on an airbus and compare how much force you feel sitting on the tarmac to how much you feel once it is at cruising altitude and at a steady 500 mph). The speed of the Earth as it spins is constant, so we feel no force from that. The same for its speed in orbit. The spin is, well, a spin - so you are changing direction with it. But that rate of change is only 15 degrees an hour (1 turn in 24 hours) - if you were changing direction on our hypothetical aircraft at ten times that rate, you'd still barely feel anything. And the rate of change of direction in orbit is over three hundred times slower still.

So the things that cause you to feel force - change in speed or change in direction - are in actually short supply or absent from both spin and orbit. So you don't feel it, or at least you feel it such a tiny amount you'd never consciously notice it - it's outweighed ten fold by a light breeze, or fifty fold from the change in weight due to a big meal.