 ouyangwulong says: Now that I have your attention, allow me to introduce the Gomboc! It's an object of absolutely perfect geometric equilbrium. There is only one position in which it can rest, and it will always return to the exact same posture, because the balance of its proportions all pull it to a single incredibly narrow center of gravity. And, it is TOTALLY NAKED! I mean, just check out the curves on this one! How did we get this Gombloc? Well, there were a few Russian mathematicians sitting around (probably stoned) who thought it would be cool. So they just sat down and did the math "for a few years" and then tested thousands of pebles (once again, STONED!) until they just decided to make one themselves. I am so not worthy! Nerds are sexy, everyone just doesn't know it yet  Correction, one Russian mathematician, and two Magyar mathematicians. Credit where credit is due! I'd like to send a shout out to all my Magyar hommies in the clip-hood. Yo! Mad props! This Gomboc thing iz da sheet! Not to be dismissive, but isn't this the same concept behind the weeble wobbles that most 80's kids had when growing up? They were a weighted egg with the slogan "weeble people wobble but they don't fall down". No. Weebles wobble but they don't fall down and right themselves. Different concept. Radically different geometry. Weebles are egg shaped and just weighted heavy at the bottom. The amazing Gomboc mimics the "self-righting" abilities of shelled animals like turtles and beetles. Fascinating and creative presentation of material Ouyangwulong. So witty! What would happen if you were to heap a whole lot of gombocs together in a delimited space without sufficient area for them to all stand upright on... Would they stand ontop of each other... or would they start a war ??? GOMBOC WAR! But I think eric's confusion is partly my fault. When I described it as a narrow center of gravity, that was me being sloppy with terms, or more precisely, redefining them without telling anyone. That's a bad habit. I described it as having an "impossibly narrow center of gravity," which would seem like the same thing as the weebles, which wobble because they have a very low center of gravity. When I said "narrow" I was thinking more in three dimensions, rather than two. Weebles have a center of gravity that works two directions: up and down, and side to side. This is created by an imbalance in weight in proportion to its shape. Thus it wobbles side to side, but won't fall too far because ... Ahh - I get it now! Very cool  Just unless anyone was curious, I've been watching an interesting clip on the psychology of human limitations by Kore7, which has been up for about 3 days and has been POPed On the other hand, this clip has been up for just over a day, it has been POPed 13 times, and viewed 630 times! Ack! posted before I was done! So Kore7's interesting clip: About: Psychology of physical limitations in Athletes. Posted: About three days ago Popped: 13 times Views: 191 This clip: About: Mono-monostatic objects Posted: About one day ago Popped: 13 times Views: 630!!! Viva la Gomboc! Cheating - lured us in with the Sexy title Just kidding, both cool clips. Just a question, probably a dumb one . Is this research in any way similar to how they are trying to design self- righting life boats? No, because a self-righting in water is a little bit of a different game, specifically because it has to float. They actually have a bunch of self righting Coast Guard boats, if I'm not mistaken. These use counterweighted ballast, just like a punching bag doll. The dolls use weight that shifts, to make it stand up. It's not because of geometry, but physics. Within certain parameters, a self-righting life boat can be any shape you want, as long as it is weighted properly. On the other hand, the gomboc doesn't use weight, but shape. When placed on a hard surface it rolls around untill it comes up where it started, in water the gomboc would just sink. Even in silt, I would imagine, the gomboc would be trapped. A self-righting life boat, on a hard surface, would just lay there, but in water it rights itself. Nice lead in to a fun geometric concept! I seem to be suffering from some sort of "below-the-belt rigor mortis" at seeing these things... |
View the Top Clips from December 8, 2007
Embed This Clip In Your Site...
|
||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||
