Sjack Abeling Gravity Wheel and the Worlds first Weight Power Plant

[Low-Q]

I'll build this machine right away.

4 balls with a hole
1 wheel with 4 spokes
1 path to guide the balls

Put the balls on the spokes, but inside the path and see what happens.

My pre-thoughts: It takes the same time for the balls to rise as it takes to fall. The weight of the balls are equal. The total energy for now is calculated to 0.

However, the torque is greater for the falling balls between 12:30 and 5:30 than the rising balls between 6:30 and 11:30 - or is it so?

The speed of the rising balls are rapidly increasing in the moment they are leaving 6:30 - in a position where there is almost no torque from the opposite ball at 12:30. This speed is slowing down as the ball is approaching 9 o'clock there the torque of the opposite ball 3 o'clokc is at its most. From that point it is again accelerating, simultaneously as the torque of the opposite ball is decreasing, untill it must slow rapidly down right before 12 o'clock.

This accelerating and deaccelerating part is gaining the counter torque that will force the wheel to a stop.

That is MY guess. I will try though. Start with two spokes with equal weights and see what happens.

Maybe I'm lost, but you guys still discuss the initial gravity wheel?

Vidar

[Ken the Great]

Hello Vidar,

I hate to be the pessimist, but your idea will not work.


1) you must harness the power of gravity.
2) you must be able to store potential energy to be released at the precise time.
3) you must be able to take full advantage of the kinetic energy that is created once the wheel is in motion

If you eliminate any one of these, you will end up building a paper weight.

Merry Christmas

[AB Hammer]

@AB Hammer,

Good luck and hope you'll notify the thread of the outcome.

For now, however, we have to follow what has already been established conclusively and that involves seeking ways to substantially decrease friction, unfortunately.

Merry Christmas to all.

Don't worry Omnibus, All is in good hands and will be done intelligently and properly.

Ken

Allot of people here won't fully understand until the running wheel is exposed and explained in detail, at the same time. Then we will here a resounding DOH!!

Alan

Alan

[Ken the Great]

Alan is that a Homer Simpson DOH?! hahahaha

I emailed Ralph some more technical aspects that I believe to be important, that I did not include on the drawings themselves. Some notes are there and I told you some of them over the phone.

I will forward you the email I sent him, so if you have any additional input you could share it with Ralph.

I have done some more pondering and I believe we can move the weights off the perimeter starting at the 6:00 to 6:05 position instead of waiting until the 6:45 to 7:00 position, by advancing the timing of the release of the potential energy that's stored. Once released the kinetic energy will remain the same and still do the same amount of work, it will just happen a little sooner.

Advancing the timing will increase the speed, along with the energy output. (regardless of friction)

Also the timing of the transfer of kinetic energy to the weight in the 6:00 position will need to be retarded I believe, I think I was too aggressive in my estimate in the notes on the top left corner of drawing number 1.
I am now thinking 85 to 90 percent.

Of course this can be adjusted rather quickly and several different values can be tried to gain the best performance.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

The Love of Money is the root of all evil.

Send me 20 bucks to hear more... 

[Omnibus]

Timing of release of potential energy is indeed the central issue but that’s what all overbalanced wheels take advantage of. While individual weights would always obey CoE, a construction which ensures that at all angles of rotation (that is, at any given time) an assembly of weights on the right-hand side of the lever is always heavier that the assembly of weights on the left-hand side will continuously violate CoE.

As for kinetic energy, which is the way of expressing the release of potential energy, the only kinetic energy of interest is the rotational kinetic energy which will be the greater the more unbalanced the wheel is. To ensure persistently that maximum unbalancing for a given construction the weights should readjust as fast as possible at their optimum positions on the wheel under the action of the component of their weight tangential to the track. Of course, friction can be impediment to that optimum kinetic energy of the weights tending towards their optimum positions on the wheel (to make wheel sooner maximally overbalanced for a given construction). This kind of friction isn’t a problem, however, and can easily be minimized to the desired extent.

The friction that’s really the culprit is the scissor-type friction in the lower left quadrant of the wheel. Had there been a way to decrease that friction to a desired level we’d had a perpetually spinning overbalanced wheel. That’s a purely engineering issue and this is where we need experise at the level of Swiss watch making which is apparently lacking elsewhere.