Tai Chi in zero-g?

August 5, 2008 3:42 PM

Would Tai Chi work in outer space?

Not that I really expect anyone to have any experience doing Tai Chi in zero-g (but if any forum had that person, it'd be MeFi), but I'm really curious. Tai Chi uses gravity or weight as a motive force so much that I'm really hard-pressed to imagine how it would work without gravity. I can imagine Tai Chi principles while fighting in zero-g, but not the form by itself. I do Chen Man Ching style, btw.

posted by nímwunnan to science & nature (6 comments total)

Typically, when astronauts exercise in space, they strap themselves to a surface, including for treadmill running. I don't see why Tai Chi would be any different, although it could certainly be more awkward.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:17 PM on August 5, 2008

What if you wore magnetic boots and were standing on a relatively large-massed ferromagnetic object?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:17 PM on August 5, 2008

Hugh Jackman manages to do okay in The Fountain, but then I guess he had a tree bubble thing with gravity.
posted by juv3nal at 4:54 PM on August 5, 2008

Blazecock Pileon, the force between a magnet and a hunk of magnetizable stuff goes like the separation cubed. If the magnet is weak enough that one boot can be lifted by an inch, then a foot away the force is a thousand times weaker. This is much more like a contact force than the uniform acceleration provided by gravity.

My impression from the poster is that Tai Chi movements have lots of sequences where you position, relax, and fall to a new position. Those would not work in zero-g.

A staple of science fiction (e.g. in 2001) is the spacecraft that rotates, so the centripetal force of the outer rim == floor mimics a normal force here on the ground. The centripetal force goes linearly with the distance from the axis, which isn't nearly so extreme as a magnet. But a six-foot person in a sixty-foot-radius chamber would feel a 10% difference between "gravity" at his head and his feet.

Once you got used to that, you could probably do some neat things. (Homework: take a (soft) ball to a merry-go-round with a friend. Get spinning. Try to play catch.)
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 5:17 PM on August 5, 2008

But a six-foot person in a sixty-foot-radius chamber would feel a 10% difference between "gravity" at his head and his feet.

Coriolis effect becomes significant in a smaller system which is turning more rapidly. If you drop a ball, it wouldn't appear to go straight down. It would drop and curve to the side.

That would also somewhat affect arm and leg movements up and down when doing something like Tai Chi.
posted by Class Goat at 5:58 PM on August 5, 2008

Resistance Bands
posted by blue_beetle at 11:59 PM on August 5, 2008