h a l f b a k e r yLike gliding backwards through porridge.
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JesusHChrist, that wouldn't have a prayer. |
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Ms Christ, or may I call you Hellen?, I see from the links that sphericons roll in a straight line, but 'wobble'. When they roll against another sphericon, is the point of contact one dimensional or two? |
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Also, in your design, what holds the four sphericons in place - what is working against them? I'm tempted to bun this just for leading to the links. |
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Are you not simply using the sphericon as a swash-plate motor? If so, why? |
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Apologies, I got the idea confused with the second link. However, if your single sphericon is fixed, then the sharp edge traverses your contact bearings on each turn - this would lead to failure of the components pretty quickly. Better to have the contact bearings traverse the curved portion only (you could choose a path that varied the distance from the centre - introducing reciprocal motion) perhaps by use of some kind of elbowed rotating rod which would introduce a 'wobble motion', rather than a straight through one ? |
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I don't even fully get what shape a sphericon is. I've read and re-read mathworld's description but it's not seeping in. I need to hold one in my hands, I think. |
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Bristolz - to get the shape of the sphericon,
1. Go to the first link, JHC's website
2. Find the photo of the sphericon with the caption "a beautiful wood sphericon from someone else's website"
3. When you look at the photo, keep in mind that the back (hidden) side of the wooden sphericon looks exactly like the front (visible) side. Imagining that back-front symmetry should help. |
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Thanks [robinism], I have finally understood the shape! |
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[Spericon vending machine] "Has anyone got change for a dollar?" |
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[Bristolz] the fourth link will do the trick. |
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is there a hamster inside that thing? |
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I must say, that the Wolfram Alpha diagram, although mathematically accurate, is lacking.
Maybe, a see through solid approach, showing dotted lines of the otherside's semicircle would have more clarity of purpose. |
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The fourth link was helpful, if you're trying to understand
the shape. |
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....Still not sure how this machine is supposed to work. |
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If you hold a hand-sized sphericon with two hands, the
easiest way to get it into a regular motion is to use the
thumb and forefinger of each hand, so that you have four
points of contact that at one point will be at the midpoints
of the lines that make of up the square cross section of the
sphericon. |
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As the sphericon rolls between your hands, each hand will
twist back and forth, in a reciprocating motion, while the
sphericon will rotate around a line that goes up and down
through its center. |
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If you made the sphericon out of wood or metal and
expected a machine that tries to copy this motion to work,
the edges would quickly break, because the tip of the
cone in the sphericon is imaginary, but if the shpericon is
defined by magnitism, or in this case by foam in the air,
you wont have that same problem. |
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A regular sphericon made out of foam will flap and
maintain its position in the air if a wobble motor is
embedded inside, but if that is hard for you to imagine,
just imagine the essence of the sphericon -- two half-
circle-shapes touching eachother at the midpoint of their
straight lines. That is a sphericon without a surface, its the
two curves where the bases of the cone meet. If you put a
wobble motor at the center point of that structure it
would fly, and its not as hard to imagine how a sphericon
or a mobius would fly. Its because they are made out of
foam that they fly. |
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Actually, [JHC], just get help. There is no good interpretion of your current state. |
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i will enjoy feeding you an air anchor when the time comes |
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I will look forward to that. Thank you. |
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I didn't know [JHC]'s sphericon-fixated insanity started so
long ago. It might be too late. |
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