h a l f b a k e r yThe word "How?" springs to mind at this point.
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I can feel my elbows breaking already! [+] |
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Cool, my only concern is falling and getting an embolism.
But there are ways around that.+ |
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Do the spectators get to have big paddles to smack the boarders with? (obviously only in the interest of trying to score goals;) |
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Yeah, any giant floating pucks? |
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Most of the air hockey tables I've seen work by blowing air in from all sides, lifting the puck by the combined air pressure pushing inwards and upwards. The table must be small in order to work so an ice rink would be too big. Are there other designs of air hockey tables you had in mind? Something along the lines of the system linked perhaps? |
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"Big fans in floor" comes to mind, [htj]. Perhaps it could be refined to "big fans in floor with air forced through tiny little holes." |
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After all, one fan can keep a beach ball in the air, and a lot of air spread over a large flat surface, like a board, would probably do pretty well at it, too. |
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I like this, but when I first saw the title I thought it might be about mid-air boarding of airplanes. I pictured solar powered planes at high altitude that would never land and smaller planes which would dock with them. |
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air hockey tables work by blowing air up through lots of little holes. Any size would work. What I want to know is how do you turn? |
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Not the air hockey tables I've played on [Freefall] but if you say there are such as that I believe you. The jets power would have to be increased I guess. |
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[desertfox], I half did this before, see link |
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True, neilp. Your idea is close, but slightly different. Mine isn't transport, nor do you ride on trays. In fact it's just that both use air hockey technology. |
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Mine is a sport in a closed rink while riding on boards. |
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Neato. How 'bout this one...Air Luge.
+ |
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Seems awfully close to the idea in my link, the only difference is you don't mention scoring goals. |
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I like it. Maybe if there is a PSI issue in keeping up enough air pressure over a large surface area, you could have your large surface area floor actually be composed of square "cells" about the same size as an air hockey table. |
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I'd pay for admission to an Air Hocky Rink. But are there big holes at either end of the rink like in regular Air Hockey? If you fall down in to one of the holes you should slide down a shoot that ends up in a dumpster. And in order to get back in you have to buy another ticket. Which makes sense, because you should be penalized for being clumsy. |
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I don't think it would be difficult to
provide enough air flow or air pressure.
If the board were (say) a 2ft square,
then a 200lb person would only need a
pressure of about half a PSI. The board
would probably float only a fraction of
an inch above the floor, so the area of
"gap" out of which the air escapes at the
board-edges is only 8ft x fraction-of-
an-inch (say maybe 10 square inches).
Correspondingly, then, the flow of air
through the floor-holes isn't going to
be that great (even over the total floor
area). Remember, you're only trying to
maintain a 'lubricating' film of air under
the board - it's not like trying to blow a
person upwards in free air. |
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Perhaps one of those big office building airconditioner units could supply sufficient volume. The key thing is that it must be consistent and dead reliable or injuries will result. |
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That would sound about right.
Incidentally, if you drop an 8x4ft sheet
of MDF (?don't know if that translates -
it's a sheet timber product) down on a
polished floor and jump on it as it hits
the ground, you can 'float' with
alarming ease for about half a second
just from the trapped air film. It's
probably better if you're *expecting*
this to happen, which I wasn't at the
time. |
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[Basepair] Most amusing! Thank you. |
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There is/was a product that would be appropriate here, but I'm not going to google for it. Essentially, it's a bed of air nozzles, with each nozzle just barely blocked by a ball. When a load depresses the ball, the air escapes and supports the load, while the ball is free to roll in the airstream. The advantage is that the air is used only as needed.
You might be able to persuade the balls to roll in only one direction, but I'd like to see barely-adequate pedal-powered ducted fans for propulsion and steering. Okay, maybe bumpers around the boards.
Better yet, make a parabolic floor, so the riders have to orbit around the center. |
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I ain't skatin' on no pairabolics. |
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