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China completes most powerful hypergravity centrifuge (interestingengineering.com)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/science@mander.xyz
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[–] 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

For some reason the 'article' mentions compressing space and time multiple times. Does it really though? Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I can't imagine large centrifugal forces inducing any relativistic effects.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Only if it goes at a statistically significant % of the speed of light, I think. Artificial "gravity" it creates should not have any relativistic effects, AFAIK. These only show up at proximity to large masses (real gravity).

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    • [–] 13 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    Did a little research on this thing. Its capacity is 1900 g-tons, meaning that it can take a payload of 1000 kg (one metric ton) and spin it to apply 1900 G's.

    Is 1 ton it's weight limit? Dunno.

    Is it limited to 1900 G? Dunno.

    The "compressing space time" statement is just poor journalism. They're referring to the fact that they can perform accelerated testing because of the higher limits. Basically, a test might take 2 days instead of 10 because it can go harder. Yes, it's that stupid.

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago* (3 children)

    Is 1 ton it’s weight limit? Dunno.

    Its weight limit is 19 MN. You can divide it in any reasonable product of payload mass and apparent gravity you want.

    It would be way more practical to label it by the actual weight than that gravity*mass bullshit. But engineering has some boneheaded practices that people insist on keeping alive, mostly for gatekeeping.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Its weight limit is 19 MN. You can divide it in any reasonable product of payload mass and apparent gravity you want.

    Doubt

    You're assuming that it has the ability to spin faster at lower loading. There's certainly an upper limit to how fast it can go (because of motor limits, gearing, etc).

    In reality, the limits for this machine are probably best described by a payload vs. speed chart.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    You can always move the payload away from the centrifuge, you don't have to spin any slower or faster.

    The maximum apparent gravity is still fixed, but it's a direct consequence of the materials available so there's some industry standard chart somewhere where you can put those 1900 g-ton and read how many gs you can get.

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    • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    "Hypergravity" centrifuge? Isn't that just a centrifuge? Are there any hypogravity centrifuges?

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