Hello

Revision Test No. 5, Q15 - "During constant angular acceleration in the yawing plane, the hair-like cells in the semicircular canals of the inner war will be"

Answer - "In an upright position"


My question is, don't the semicircular canals sense change in motion and a constant angular acceleration implies that change is occurring? I understand the canals only sense the 'initial change' but does this mean that even if you yaw around 180 degrees at an increasing rate (angular acceleration), the semicircular canals aren't going to pick this up after a couple moments and thus remain upright?

I might be thinking about this too hard.

Angular acceleration refers to the movement in the rolling plane. When you first apply bank to commence a turn, the semi-circular canals sense the initial roll from sitting vertical to adopting a banked attitude. However, once the turn has commenced and the skid ball is centered, there is no further motion occurring in the rolling plane, so the hair-like cells in the inner ear return to the normal position and there is no sensation of movement in the rolling plane. The aircraft is settled in a balanced level turn and there is no change in the angle of bank.