Has anyone seen a better SMOT toy than this one?

[Cloxxki]

As a former competitive cyclist, runner and skier, I know that potential energy (relative height) is a very efficient energy store.
I'm quite fond of "lower path" paradox where a sphere will reach a desitination fast if it's allowed follow a lower path, taking on speed, even if it needs to scale a final uphill to the destination. Gravity can help speed up travel, if you dig a deep tunnel to coast through.

I could imagine the magnet being modeled in a computer, and a path being chosen where the sphere takes a kind of orbital path through its flux influence. Perhaps the sphere doesn't get into deeper flux lines (stronger attraction), at least to the point of being locked in.
Height is gained on the roll up the ramp, at the cost if horizontal velocity into the "exit" point where we're used to see cogging. The combination of scaling the threshold of the peak and the gravitational pull could be enough to escape the magnet and roll toward the next with positive velocity.
If this works where all other attempts didn't, I wouldn't quite know why.

The rotation of the sphere also holds energy that upon slow down up the ramp is transferred into extra roll distance and/or height. Possible more crucially, the approach of any of the magnets is with more potential energy than the velocity observed by the magnet is greater than the mass it's working on. The uphill path prevents the slipping reported and helps extract that flywheel energy, transfer into height.
This immediately makes me wonder what a spindle type roller would do. High friction contact point materials or even a toothed interface between the rolling weight and the ramp, greater percentage of potential energy stored in the very rotation the of effective rolling flywheel.

If there is a builder, or group of builders, with the collective skillset to work on a replication, I hope it's both a fun and fruitful undertaking for them. Once verified, I can't wait to sink my teeth into getting as much surplus energy out as possible, in a design that is less dependent on gravity and orientation. As I see new energy systems right now, it's all about power density and it will be fun to tune the heck out of an anomaly like this.

[sm0ky2]

@Cloxi


There are a few misnomers there i will try to explain




As i stated above: gravity overpowers magnetism in this device
the magnet isnt "lifting the ball"
Also by triangulation of the force vectors as i described,
we can see that even though the ball is moving upward,
which appears to be 'closer' to the magnet....
it is actually moving further away from the Center of the magnet
Which is the point of attraction.
The ball is a sphere: therefore equilibrium is a point where 1/2 of the sphere is
N and 1/2 is S
This is at the center of the bar magnet
Thats where the ball wants to go


Long ago, a member named Clanzer proved that the rotational momentum of the ball
is exactly the same value as the same mass on a cart with wheels
Therefore: the rotational momentum does not add anything that would not otherwise be there


I am still not certain that the ramps "do" anything


We may find the exact same results on a flat track

[sm0ky2]

I've done some tests with balls and ramps, changes in velocity at different speeds
they all seem to follow the normal gravitational curve
and the distance from the center of magnetism where the ramps are:
the magnet isn't having a great affect on anything that ball is doing (up/down)

[sm0ky2]

I'm sure people have seen the "magnetic shotgun"


Where 1 ball is placed at the center of magnetism
and another is allowed to accelerate into it


the ball exiting does so with a much greater force than required to insert the second ball
And the device resets by entrapping the second ball in the first one's place
meaning one energy input can result in multiple repetitive outputs with no additional costs
This has led to many attempts at a looped magnetic gun
Like a circular Newton's Cradle (which by the way cycles much longer than a linear one)


in the magnetic case: the approach increases in velocity with the sq rt of the distance
The exit decreases in negative acceleration with the square of the distance
while the strength of the magnetic field is independent of time:
acceleration and momentum are NOT!

[sm0ky2]

I will note 1 important fact about magnetic gates
This is the permeability of free space
(and to a lesser degree, that of air)


At the boundary condition of the magnetic field is the boundary of a
(weaker) inverse field.
This field can become compressed in arrays or loops of gates
Resulting in a stronger barrier preceding the gate
distance between gates becomes very important under this condition
Too close will slow the ball
Too far and friction slows the ball