Artificial gravity

Artificial gravity is a gravity-like effect produced by acceleration or other physical mechanisms rather than a celestial body's gravitational field. In spacecraft, rotation is the leading proposed way to create it continuously.

Centrifugal force: An apparent outward force experienced in a rotating reference frame. A rotating habitat's floor pushes inward while this apparent force makes occupants feel pulled outward.
Gravitational field: A physical field describing the gravitational force per unit mass at each point in space. Artificial gravity imitates selected effects of this natural field rather than reproducing its source.
Space habitat: A crewed structure designed to support human life beyond Earth's surface. Artificial gravity is one strategy for making long-duration habitats more like Earth's environment.
Microgravity: A condition in which apparent weight is very small, commonly experienced by orbiting spacecraft and their occupants. It is the near-weightless environment that rotating habitats are intended to counter.
Coriolis force: An apparent force in a rotating reference frame that deflects moving objects relative to that frame. Head movements and moving fluids in rotating habitats can produce Coriolis-related sensations.
Centripetal acceleration: The inward acceleration required to keep an object moving in a circular path. A habitat's rotation needs inward acceleration to keep occupants moving in circles.
O'Neill cylinder: A proposed rotating space settlement shaped as a large cylinder, with living areas along its inner surface. Its large radius permits Earth-like rotation rates while generating substantial apparent gravity.
Weightlessness: The sensation of having no support force acting on the body, even when gravity is present. Orbiting crews feel weightless because they and their spacecraft are in free fall, not because gravity vanishes.
Equivalence principle: The principle that local effects of uniform acceleration can be indistinguishable from those of a gravitational field. It explains why sustained acceleration can imitate gravity locally.
Specific force: Non-gravitational force per unit mass measured by an accelerometer. An accelerometer in a rotating or accelerating habitat registers the support forces occupants feel.

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