h a l f b a k e r y"Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
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The centrifugal fishtank consists of a squat toroid of Perspex. It can be spun at high speed via a central hub.
All the gravel, ceramic model divers, little houses, lumps of coral etc. are glued to the outer circumference of the torod, which is rectangular in cross section. The fishtank is provided
with the usual air bubblers, etc.
The tank starts from a rest position and over a period of many minutes increases its speed until the water is flung outwards by the roatational forces. The acceleration needs to be very, very gentle to ensure the whole water mass is affected by viscous coupling and the fish don't get bashed about.
The tank is intended to be viewed from below; "down" for the fish will be along the radius of the tank, so they can swim round and round forever, with some of their compatriots "above" them. Because of buoyancy effects, they should be relatively unaware of the increase in "gravity".
Heath Robinson drawings
http://www.btintern.../~a.ghinn/heath.htm ha ha [FarmerJohn, Sep 18 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004]
Rube Goldberg
http://www.rgmc.com/ Heath Robinson * US / Britain [jutta, Sep 20 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]
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Annotation:
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Turn it vertical and you have a fish treadmill. |
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Won't the fish suffer from coriolis forces when they try to move sideways? I don't know whether fish can get seasick....but think about being on those twirly platforms in playgrounds & what happens when you move your head. |
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Today's random [angel] factoid: fish can get seasick. |
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This is certainly this week's most elaborate nothing accomplisher. |
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(Has Heath Robinson been adopted as a kind of HB atua / patron saint?) |
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[angel] are you sure that those wobbly, vomiting, dizzy seasick fish aren't just plain drunk? |
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The fish are bouyant, so they will move to a point where there are zero net forces acting on them and then stay there. Wouldn't coming in to feed rip off their lips? |
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But the fish would go 'round too fast to look at them.
Fish blurs are no fun. |
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Need I really post my usual fishkeeping info link yet again? |
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Sometimes I wonder about the mental health of some people - why would someone want this? |
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Rats! I wrote this up and then found 8th beat me to it. Anyway, I was thinking you could keep deep-sea fish in there, because of the high pressure you could generate. Strobe lighting timed to the rotation would illuminate the contents, so it would be as if they were standing still. |
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Perhaps it is the viewer who should
be rotated. Around the circular
tank is a circular viewing platform;
if the little fishie swims into its
little fishy fortress, it triggers the
platform to revolve. If the fish is
clever/lucky enough to make
repeat visits the platform could
spin ever faster, until the aquarium
gazer is flung off. In a heap at the
foot of the wall, he can ponder on
his decision to own fish. |
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I was going to bone as all you could see is blurry fish circles... but then a strobe light was mentioned, and now I can see the fish. And you can see a bun instead. |
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If you flash the light at the right speed you can make it look like you have more fish than you really do |
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You could keep those little blue ones that light up under UV and use a UV strobe. |
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Thanks for bringing this to the top of "recent" [eulachon]. It's cOool. |
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With the addition of a strobe light and little blue shiny fish this could be well cool. Especially when the fish start having epileptic fits. Mwahaha. + |
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Can we have it with a horizontal axis? As long as the tankoid is spinning fast enough the water will stay in it 'upside down'. Like the thing you can do with a bucket of water on a string.
In a big impressive corporte building atrium, a fishy ferris wheel 50m across would need to spin at a little over 800rpm...
(bit of a challenge to clean the tank though) |
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If it was big enough, you could swim in it and experience the dual pleasures of high G and weightlessness. (Youre weightless in the water, but just try to do the backstroke!) |
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Has anyone tried this in the two years since it inception? |
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