The ‘artificial gravity’ of a rotating spacecraft is a recurring trope across science fiction. Centrifugal force is a real and necessary effect in a rotating reference frame, but the description of motion is incomplete without Coriolis force alongside it. Unfortunately, the latter doesn’t get much representation in fiction that I’m aware of.

Coriolis force pushes sideways on objects that move in the plane of rotation of the rotating reference frame, causing them to move in arcs. Coriolis effects are perhaps best known in the context of atmospheric wind: as the Earth and its atmosphere form a rotating reference …