Maximum Theoretical Power from Unbalanced Wheel

[Cloxxki]

I've also started to believe that IF there's a way to get a weight system to run, it's because how acceleration works. Or rather, decelleration. (distance travelled of the weight per video frame). A chain doesn't allow speed variances through it.

A weight rolling up a ramp, covers the first half of its potential height (from horizontal speed at 6:00) in a fraction of the time it would take the second (top) half, and faster than when following the wheel, and especially faster than a ramp shaped as the wheel.
If coming up to the vertical chain would allow the weight to carry it's momentum as om a ramp, gradually losing speed, it might work. You just need it to get more height than the downward weight loses height, so the latter has enough potential energy to spare to lift the former up and over the top.
What if the chain were near weightless in comparison, and running at the rim speed, but slowing down as the climbing weight does, with a minimum (a spring system) could take up that difference) before the speed would be catching up with the rim again.
The upwards weight just needs to get some height down to chase the downward one.
What helps: the downward one loses little height at the start of the downstroke, due to a cirdle starting out flat.
So the up weight gains height while the down weight has little to help the up weight with. In the second half of the half-cycle, this relationship flips. The down weight has been able to get some extra enertia into the wheels during the time the up weight was on it's own. Seems totally plausible to me. Just needs a simple set up. Abeling/Dusty have one, so we need another.

[iacob alex]

   
    Hi Cloxxky !

I agree with the trajectory.

For me,the (semi) circular fall is a long time storage of a gravity fall into a rotational inertia(an "other kind " to balance energy).

The linear up trajectory,it's a simple jump,due to a short discharge of (stored) rotational energy.

I wish you success!
 
           All the Bests! / Alex

[Low-Q]

I am trying to wrap my head around the unbalanced wheel.  I made a very fast sketch in paint to illustrate it in the extreme, where the one weight follows the circumference of the wheel as it descends, and follows the vertical axis on its way up.

Questions:
1. Does this path create the maximum off balance (highest power output)?  If not what is the theoretical Ideal path for the weight to follow.
2.is it still in balance? The weight on the way down is has less downward force because it is following an incline except for a brief moment when it reaches the height of the axial while the full downward force is in effect on the upward travelling weight.

If you have more questions please add them and hopefully some of you guru's who have thought this through will be able to shed some light on this.

Thanks in advance everyone for your contributions

If the difference inn hight between the top via the half circle, and the top stright down to the bottom is greater (Well, which it isn't) you will gain energy. But in this case there is no difference in hight from the ground and to the top no matter what path the weight is following. When you start and finish at the same hight, there cant be any difference in energy. Therfor you cannot get energy out of a overbalanced wheel.

Sorry.

Vidar

[hansvonlieven]

This kind of idea has been around for a long time. It does not work.

Hans von Lieven

[Flyboy]

If the difference inn hight between the top via the half circle, and the top stright down to the bottom is greater (Well, which it isn't) you will gain energy. But in this case there is no difference in hight from the ground and to the top no matter what path the weight is following. When you start and finish at the same hight, there cant be any difference in energy. Therfor you cannot get energy out of a overbalanced wheel.

Sorry.

Vidar

I must agree after thinking about it a bit I now can see intuitively that as I originally drew (or hansvonlieven's illustration above) is in balance as the system is broken down into two seperate systems, one being the wheel itself which is balanced, and two, the chain which is balanced as well... the fact that it is half on a wheel is just an illusion.

Now lets have a more in depth look into the classic unbalanced wheel, where we force the wheel to be unbalanced via differing torque. (see illustration attached).  To clarify, each spoke has a weight on it, on the way down is at its maximum radius (max leverage) and on the way up the radius shortens (less leverage).  Theoretically the balls take the same amount of energy to go up as it does to go down, so in our frictionless thought experiment the device will spin effortlessly.  However the 'MAGIC' comes into play in this model when we compare the distance from the axis for each matched pair of weights... thus a spinning motion is created on the wheel.

So my questions now are:
1. Have I accurately summed up the essence of the unbalanced wheel theory?
2. Since I'm sure this has been tried many times... what is the flaw in the theory?
3. If it works what is the optimal theoretical path for the weights to take giving the max power?