Working gravity wheel ?

[gurangax]

Sorry but the design will not work like wattsup said. If you use the system to power itself that will not work. You need to look out of the box to find the answer. But it's a nice try. keep up the good work.

[Dgraphic911]

OK i quit then, thanks, i only lasted a week. Best of luck with the introduction of your working wheel.

[aleks]

Have anyone of your considered using mathematical optimization (solution finder) techniques to find the best wheel arrangement with the given constraints (mass of wheel, number of balls, mass of balls)? Of course, for optimization to work you have to come up with a generalized formulation of a wheel. Well, the wheel itself and the balls have a pre-defined form, but the form of "guides", and their number can vary a lot. This is what should take the most work. Intuitively this can be easy, but it won't be optimal. Only computer-aided optimization can yield good results (this is how computer fans are designed now after exhausting man's own ability). One general optimization method that can have such complex problem resolved is "digital evolution" algorithm which is close to DNA evolution in formulation. You need to express several "free variables" that this algorithm can adjust, and a function that calculates "cost" of the wheel based on free variables (obviously the most optmial wheel will have the lowest "cost"). After a good set of "free variables" for the wheel is found, you can include a "test sequence" inside the "cost" function that, for example, processes several cycles of the wheel doing a physical simulation. Then, after performing some calculations, you may calculate the "cost". If the wheel does not even rotate during simulation, its "cost" is close to infinite.

[SeanTheLight]

basic physics games like armadillo run can be great for prototyping a design, but when you get a design that works (i have 2 distinct designs so far that spin forever, can be held in place for a minute and then released, or even spun in the opposite direction by dropping a weight onto it, and when those weights drop off the wheel, it IMMEDIATELY reverses direction), you realize that there is a chance you are exploiting a glitch in the low-level simulation engine used.

i guess ill go ahead and post the armadillo run level, so anyone with that game can view the design. id use fraps but i dont have any experience with that program. if anyone else wants to post a video in avi or other format feel free.


note: I DESPERATELY WANT an inuitive physics simulation tool similar in interface to armadillo run, but with magnets, joints/hinges/pulleys, 2d/3d building/simulation, buoyancy!, viscosity!, air/liquid pressure!, etc.

i downloaded "working model" and installed it in demo mode, but in the 2 times that ive opened it, i could only intuitively create some simple shapes and watch them fall when i pressed play.

armadillo run + more tools/materials + a much more accurate simulation engine = an easier path to successful designs in the public domain, magnet, gravity, buoyancy, air/liquid pressure, and leverage motors specifically.


This is my first post here. Hi everyone.

seanthelight@gmail.com

[angellcruz]

I agree Chas Campbell's wheel looks promising.  http://youtube.com/watch?v=2qyvX9j5i3U

The best page to start understanding the challenges of Gravity Wheel can be found in Wikipedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_motion