The office of the teacher Enigma (11): Solution

Well, spent a few very necessary days of deep reflection, heme here again, ready to solve the question that had raised you in the office of the teacher Enigma. In this occasion it was a question, neither more nor less, of the mythical, famous, legendary work of the least distinguished and brilliant Stanley Kubrick 2001: an odyssey of the space, based on the series of histories "The lookout", of Arthur C. Clarke.
Between many other things, the movie of Kubrick, it is always remembered by his enormous respect to the science, by his precision and accuracy at the time of describing cinematográficamente the physical reality. The sound absence in the space, which so much attracted attention in his epoch, just is a sample. Still nowadays it keeps on producing puzzlement in many spectators, undoubtedly motivated by the continuous bombing of movies full of spatial fireworks, noisy battles, gunshots, destructive beams buzzers and all kinds of thunderous weapon that populate the movies of ostensible science fiction.
In spite of the whole respect and admiration that I have for 2001: an odyssey of the space, I have not left any more remedy to recognize that also in her some scientific errors are committed. True it is that it is a question of minor errors, but nevertheless worth being mentioned. I go with them.
In the paper clip that was connecting you in the previous entry it is possible to contemplate a spatial ferry (it is not a plane, although it it seems) with a clear aerodynamic form. This does not constitute any error, since similar profile becomes necessary so much to leave the terrestrial ambience as to return to her, as soon as the mission was finished. The current spatial ferry (space shuttle) also possesses these aerodynamic forms. Well, the ferry in the movie goes towards a gigantic structure in form toroidal, that is in orbit while it describes simultaneously a rotary movement about an axis that happens for his geometric center and is perpendicular to the plane of the toroides (to understand us, the wheels with sails that are seen in the scene).

Inside the spatial ferry, we can see (minute 00:48) how a pen describes a somewhat "strange" movement. Obviously, it is floating due to the state of microgravity that affects all the objects inside the ship. What happens is that the rotation of the pen, if you notice thoroughly, does not take place about an axis that happens for his center of gravity, as the laws of the physics demand. This blunder (subtle blunder, I recognize it) owed to the technical limitations of the epoch in which there was rolled the movie (in the year 1968: more than 40 years ago!!) . Initially, the scene was rolled suspending the pen by means of threads, but the result was not convincing by no means Kubrick, an authentic obsessed one of the precision. This way, finally, he chose to hold, give the pen to a transparent disc that made be turned and that was allowing to the stewardess to detach it easily on having seized it. What I do not manage to understand is why the center of gravity of the pen did not adhere to the point of the disc for which his rotation axis was happening. Anyway, I suppose that I will never know it.
Another detail that we can observe is that of the form of walking of the stewardess along the interior of the spatial ferry. Obviously, the ship must have the inactive rockets so that the microgravity situation happens and hence the doctor Heywood Floyd goes subject by means of a belt that avoids that I floated in sleep. Some of you has pointed out that with the subdued rockets, the ferry might not approach the space station, but this does not have why to be true. The changes and the corrections of orbit can have taken place before the moment that appears in the scene and they can, also, happen later. There is no reason so that the ship accelerates constantly. Well, in microgravity, the stewardess is provided with a few shoes provided with a system of grip, of subjection. We do not know the concrete system on which they are based. There can be Velcro soles or even magnetic, but the case is that, on having rested on the soil, reaction forces must appear necessary on the body of the stewardess, which can produce perfectly small imbalances to him.
Also there is the matter of the transmissions that take place when the doctor Floyd communicates with his daughter in the Earth. We do not know at what exact distance the space station of the Moon is but, in any case, it should of giving him a small delay in the signs, imposed by the speed of the light to which the electromagnetic waves propagate. It is just to say that the above mentioned delay would be of only a few tenths of second. Another delicacy. Of the price of the call, I will not make any comment.

Finally, it reduces the question of the size of the orbital space station. Since I have already said to you in any more than one occasion, the movement of rotation that prints him on a structure of these does not look for another purpose than that of providing an artificial gravity. The bigger is the angular speed of the so much major structure it will be the centrifugal effect that is chased and, consistently, the bigger will be the value of the obtained acceleration, a value that, on the other hand, is convenient that it is as near as possible to the acceleration of the gravity in the terrestrial surface. This looked value of the acceleration depends in direct form of the square of the angular speed of the structure, as well as his size (his radio, to be exact). Again, observing with attention the scene in the movie and chronometer in hand, it is possible to measure approximately the time that uses the station in describing a finished revolution. It is obtained, approximately, and rounding approximately 60 seconds. This means that so that the caused centrifugal acceleration is equal to the acceleration of the terrestrial attraction it is needed that the diameter of the station is about 1800 meters, a few dimensions that do not seem to be respected in the movie, even although we do not know the length of the ferry to be able to establish a mere comparison (the current space shuttle measures something more about 37 meters long). It does not also turn out to be too suitable that the rotation speed is too high, since that would produce a few very annoying effects on the potential inhabitants of the station. And so, the most suitable thing is always to increase the dimensions of the structure.