h a l f b a k e r yA riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a rich, flaky crust
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How to create a Field of Almost Identical
Swaying Boulders:
First grid out your field like a graph
paper
matrix with a series of flexible upright
prongs sunk into the ground at the
intersection of each of the X and Y axis
points.
After some chipping and bashing, collect
your identical
boulders together and drill
two holes through each of them at right
angles to each other. Insert one powerful
magnet per hole, so that the poles of the
magnets are just level with the exterior
surface of each boulder.
Now mount your boulders on the
supporting prongs, above head height,
and orientate them so that the array of
magnetic poles line up with the X and Y
lines, in such a way as there is magnetic
repulsion between each boulder and the
one in front, behind, to the left and right.
Congratulations ! Your Field of Almost
Identical Swaying Boulders is now ready
for action.
Just shake any of the vertical prongs to
create a disturbance in the entire field,
which will cause all of the boulders to
begin swaying, with waves of motion
being transmitted across the entire array.
Rock City
http://www.roadside...p_AttractionNo==493
[Ander, Jan 17 2008]
[link]
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I think you could (or possibly should) sell this to the Tate. |
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You might get indentical if you were standing too close when the thing got going. |
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I was toying with a similar idea recently. |
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place a spaced array of disc magnets (North polarities all facing up) between two sheets of glass. the magnets should all repel each other. |
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result: a wave should propagate through array nicely. |
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Heh. [xenzag]'s silent dodgy boulders? |
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(Sorry, was just reminded of something) This is pointless. + |
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[Xenzag] you are a true genius and an artist as well. This idea makes me hear music. I regret that I only get to give a single bun. |
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I meant to add that saddles are
available for the more daring to "Ride
The Boulders" - gazing out from their
elevated mounts over a vista of
hundreds of tons of gently swaying
granite. |
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I love this idea - in addition to the aesthetic value, I'm wondering if this might serve any secondary application - I considered seismograph - but I think that it would be interesting to incorporate wires into the idea somewhere that generate a current as the magnetic fields around them flip and fluctuate all over the place. How do radio transmitters transmit? If you stood in the middle of this field, perhaps with more sensitive 'pebbles' in the centre in order to pick up gentler vibrations and shouted really loud, might the perturbations caused by your vocalisations be translated into the wider grid, and, by means of electro-magnetic induction, produce radio waves. These might be broadcast over vast distances, only to be received by a similar array of boulders from far, far away, at the centre of which, a lone figure sits, waiting for a message... |
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//a lone figure sits, waiting for a
message.// I think that's me...... |
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Could we paint the tops of all of them so that the field looks like a face when viewed from the air? The face would eerily change expression when the boulders were in motion. |
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I was about to post this idea. Real potential here for someone to get rich! |
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This was one of my favourite ideas when I first joined the hb, but I never voted for it. Now I have. |
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Also didn't see it. We could call it 'Stonehinge.' I don't think magnetic repulsion will be sufficient, however. |
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