The artificial gravity lab
In the Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Laboratory at Brandeis University, there’s the Artificial Gravity Facility: otherwise known as the rotating room. No-one’s invented futuristic gravity plating yet, but if you want to test how humans would cope with artificial gravity, this is the best way.
More about the Artificial Gravity Facility:
https://www.brandeis.edu/graybiel/facilities/srr.html
More about the Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Laboratory: https://www.brandeis.edu/graybiel/
Edited by Michelle Martin https://www.youtube.com/@OnTheCrux
Audio mix by Graham Haerther http://haerther.net
Animation by Mooviemakers http://www.mooviemakers.co.uk
🟥 MORE FROM TOM: https://www.tomscott.com/
(you can find contact details and social links there too)
📰 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER with good stuff from the rest of the internet: https://www.tomscott.com/newsletter/
❓ LATERAL, free weekly podcast: https://lateralcast.com/ https://youtube.com/lateralcast/
➕ TOM SCOTT PLUS: https://youtube.com/tomscottplus
👥 THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: https://youtube.com/techdif

@TomScottGo
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
I held this video back by a day, because putting out a serious video on April 1st is a fool's errand.
@thenotsurechannel7630
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
There is an issue with rooms like this… You're dealing with the Earth's downward pull as well as the pull of the room's rotation. To have a truer artificial gravity feel, you'd have to put a room like that on a space craft in a zero-g environment and turn on the rotation. THEN… you'd only have the pull from the room's rotation. Suddenly… the wall you're back is resting on would be the downward force, it would turn from a "wall" to the "floor" you could stand on.
@gemorris13
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
They had or still do have the same thing at Magic Mountain in California. It's fun, but if you really want to see how people react under this environment, go there plenty of test subjects for free.
@tallywhacker1
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
I bet NASA has a few of these for their "live" streams from "space."
@stever197037
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
Silly physics would say that the tennis ball didn't go straight because spacetime was changed.
@AceDan-gc9po
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
id say the best way is to consider leading the target like its a moving target
@michaelcherokee8906
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
How long now has it been since you went into partial retirement? Two years? Three? It'd be great to see a video from you even if just once or twice a year.
@garysmith2450
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
You get to go to such cool places😂
@youngdresbaby
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
This is just the starship 3000 at the state fair.
@TheRealKVR
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
this is also a theme park ride
@Big_Perm
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
I used to ride in an artificial gravity machine as a kid when the fair came to town all the time.
@charlescox290
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
4:07 But this isn't from gravity. This is because the walls are moving. The ball is belt thrown where Tom was and not where the Tom will be.
@sjrstfjirtsch5172
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
"if you turn your head too quickly you'll throw up"
"catch this"
@Bloxfruit_gameplay-mi4yy
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
If a room like that spins fast enough, your perspective changes to the outside wall being the floor and the floor being the wall, The only reason why I know this is cuz I went on to starship 2000 at the Nebraska State Fair, What I described happened to me.
@plaguer4t
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
tom's joy brings me joy. seeing a middle aged man laughing genuine happiness is really nice.
@upsartal
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
Nah I could easily do it no sweat, it's just gravity acting up
@SuperBartet
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
When you reached out to shake his hand, you should have reached to the left, that would have been funny 🤣🤣
@iancruz3262
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
this is centrifugal force not gravity ts pmo
@lordeisschrank
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
to this day nobody was able to explain to me why rotation would have any effect in space… like what exactly would force you onto the wall? why wouldn't you just float in place and the station rotating around you?
@JeremyTipton-r1g
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
That inner ear issue… Would that actually be a problem in space? You wouldn't be getting conflicting signals from actual real gravity.
And the floor would be at a 90 degree angle to the force, so you wouldn't feel like your constantly standing on a slope.
Could also use a larger diameter circle, that would tame the Coriolis effect a bit.
And no need to be throwing balls around on a ship.
@TrasherBiner
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
but you didn't walk… didn't even turn your heard.
@pauliexcluded1
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
I want to build this in my backyard… I have an old
Scooter motor…and a merry go round platform. I got this. People will die…
@psdaengr911
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
Riverview Park in Chicago had a ride like that toom ion the 1950s
@erinm9445
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
I don't think the issue is that our brain hasn't evolved for this, it's just that we don't have experience with it. But the speed at which Tom is able to adjust to the Coriolis force despite a LIFETIME of ordinary gravity experience, suggests that the brain itself is more than capable of handling these physics.
@Finechtyloon
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
Can't we just counter-spin the lab in proportion to the earth?
@theodiggers
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
i got dizzy
@JamzStudios
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
Well I think it's about time they release the anti-gravity technology don't you? Stay tuned to the Congressional hearings in America with all of whistleblowers.
@IVC773
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
2001 a space odyssey already did this
@Julian-jo2sw
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
this is a carnvial ride
@adamhall87
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
I've been on one of those at the state fair, 😂
@pauljensen5699
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
Reminds me of Epcot Center's Mission: Space.
Walking out of those little pods was always awesome for me.
@admantius
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
I'm really curious if they've ever invited aerial artists to test out that room. OkGo did a whole music video in a zero-g plane, and hired aerial artists to be their 'flight attendants' because their bodies are so used to doing things in environs with unusual forces.
Really great video! So cool what the human body adapts to, and how quickly
@josh7120
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
how come as kids being on the fare grounds ride "the gravitron" it was spinning so fast, we pulled our selves off the wall mats and spun around, or literally stood up turning our heads all around, we were fine?? not everyone was fine as they threw up
@MKULTRA-TV
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
Common fair ride for us southerners in America. Gravitron. Nothing new my friend
@thehammurabichode7994
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
If he fell at 5:55, it would've been the funniest thing ever
@kimjones1270
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
Artificial gravity lab is just a centrifuge
@Yahahuuythefunniman
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
Id love to see games and media that take place in space yet still dont have gravity, like imagine if in among us you had to dvd logo yourself to admin to do the swipe thatd be quite neat
@RockBoBsteRMusic
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
But I don't think it would work because they're simulating gravity within gravity. So the results shouldn't be the same when simulating gravity in no gravity.
@maximumcalculation
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
This is incredibly important research if humanity hopes to ever leave this planet.
@jeffreyadamo
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
Damn just like the county fair
@gabemealey5130
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
shout out the gravitron
@SnacksInB4
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
Centrifugal force != Artificial Gravity…
@Deathnotefan97
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
If the room is spinning fast enough, you can throw the ball in a straight line and catch it yourself
@Tobyyy24
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
Centripetal force is one hell of a drug
@UmbraDiSol
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
Tommy Scott always makes me think of an unfunny Nathan Fielder
No shade at him, I like the content. Just hits me every time.
@myboyjimbo
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
Make a big version and spin it so fast you can walk around in a ring, and then make it planet sized and add mountains and rivers and oceans and glowing monoliths
@LivingtheUnreal
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
I love that even as a full grown adult when you experience something bizarre and incredible you can’t help but laugh like a kid seeing a magic trick.
@deezynar
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
How do they plan on handling people moving around inside the rotating room and shifting the center of gravity with the weight of their bodies? And when they climb to the hub the rotational speed of the room will increase.
The only way to minimize these negative conditions is to make the spaceship very large in diameter, and very heavy. Even with that, they need to have rules to keep bad things from happening. One thing is they'd want to keep large numbers of people from gathering together in one area.
@crisisOstrich
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm
I have been in one of these at an amusement park
Comments are closed.