Re: rotating space station - graphical analysis

[Ken Caviness <caviness@SOUTHERN.EDU>]

Michael Edmiston wrote:

> For those who learn visually rather than algebraically (which often includes
> me), try this.  Sorry to use words to describe a picture, but if we step
> through this one step at a time, and if I am successful in conveying the
> picture, I promise it works and has repeatedly cleared up this issue in the
> minds of many students (and profs).
>
> (1) Draw a fairly large circle one a piece of paper.  This represents the
> path of the floor of the space station.
...

Very nice!  Thank you for walking us through this visual proof.  I
decided to create Mathematica functions that would do the graphing for
me, so as to be able to easily adjust the parameters, etc.  (It had
nothing at all to do with the fact that I can't draw, of course!)

If anyone would like to see the results, look here:

   <http://www.southern.edu/~caviness/RotatingSpaceStationGraph.html>

If you'd like the Mathematica code, email me.

Ken