The artificial gravity

Have you watched the Hollywood movie-'Interstellar'? In this movie it was seen that, in future earth becomes inhabitable for human species due to climate change and therefore they decide to search for a new habitable planet where they can forward the human race. But to find such a planet where people can live and to finally move there would take many centuries. Therefore people leave earth temporarily to a huge spacecraft which looks like a town from inside and from there they continue their mission. In this picture you see that, these people live in an environment of artificial gravity inside the spacecraft, meaning - you will feel like as if you were in the field of gravitational attraction due to earth although you are actually inside a spacecraft where gravity is almost zero (microgravity). Probably you are thinking that this artificial gravity can be generated by a very powerful and advanced engine. But actually the basic theory behind this artificial gravity is there in your Higher Secondary Physics textbook. It is the centrifugal force that you learn in your first year which can be used to produce artificial gravity. If the spacecraft rotates about its axis with a suitable speed it produces a centrifugal acceleration given by v²/r which is equal to g along a direction normally outward. Here v is the tangential speed, r is the radius of the orbit ang g is acceleration due to gravity. To see the effects of rotation in microgravity environment watch out the video below.