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Yeah, you're probably right bigsleep. |
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I was hoping that the moment of inertia of the top pendulum would compensate for the change in centre of gravity. |
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Clever. The balls act as gears, right? (It would fall over in an instant, but it's still a nice idea. If you put an arrow pointing to a battery, you could get investors for it.) |
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yep, the balls act as gears. |
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So this idea probably doesn't work, but it poses the question: is it possible to increase the stability of a vertical object with passive moving components? |
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Could the ball gear arrangement get out of whack due to a non centre-returning sequence of big pendulum movements? I suspect so. |
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It could be a tiny, tiny segway for lego people! |
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//Could the ball gear arrangement get out of whack due to a non centre-returning sequence of big pendulum movements?// |
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yep, probably. This could be overcome by concentric ribs on each ball which act like gear teeth. |
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//is it possible to increase the stability of a vertical object with passive moving components?//
Yes, give it bigger feet. |
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Other passive ways of increasing the stability include: a) attaching a helium balloon and b) making the centre of gravity of the object below the supporting surface. (although I wouldn't consider either of these to be 'passive moving' elements) |
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I think the main problem with this idea is that it will take at least as much energy to stop it toppling than it can extract from toppling (and frictional losses will push it in favour of toppling). |
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I'm wondering if it could extract as much energy as it would use if the surface wobbled (rather than being stationary)? |
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Like an iceberg, this might balance if it semi-floated in water supported in the center of some sort of innertube. Also, if you put this in some wave waters, this could add some energy to the weights and cause them to roll around so that the [whatever the dipole moment for mass is called, net(mi*ri)] relative to the center ball is always pointing against gravity. |
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/yep, probably. This could be overcome by concentric ribs on each ball which act like gear teeth./ |
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If the balls are different sizes that won't help. |
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//If the balls are different sizes that won't help// |
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this is not immediately obvious to me. Could you elaborate? |
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I was probably premature in my pooh-poohing. For now, I retract my assertion re: out-of-whackedness. |
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One sphere on the top which can be rotated in two directions independently. Much like an unbalanced person 'windmills' the arms, the sphere is temporarily rotated to bring the system to the vertical. |
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An external power source could be used, but another novel idea would be to allow the sphere to drop slightly down the shaft. |
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