h a l f b a k e r yWhat was the question again?
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First, you need to find two tall structures about (say) 50 metres
apart. A pair of large office buildings on opposite sides of a road
would do very nicely.
Second, you will need balls of steel, five, weighing (say) a ton each.
Each should have an attachment point for a cable. In a preferred
embodiment, said balls are chromium plated.
Third, you need ten strong bolts and 2000 metres of steel cable.
Fourth, attach bolts to buildings (in two horizontal rows of five),
steel cables to bolts (connecting each bolt to its counterpart on the
opposide building), and a ball to the middle of each cable. The balls
should hang (all at the same height) about 5 metres above the
ground.
You now have the world's largest Newton's Cradle. Each morning, it
can be set in motion by means of a Delegated Official on a firetruck.
A variety of different patterns can be established, by pulling back
and releasing either one or two of the balls, or by simultaneously
pulling back and releasing balls on opposite ends of the row.
If the supporting wires are about 100m long, the balls will swing
majestically, about once every 20 seconds.
Hippo's Silent Dodgy Chimes
Hippo_27s_20Silent_20Dodgy_20Chimes
[hippo, Apr 27 2009]
[link]
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I am relieved to see that, despite the title, this is not a means of execution. |
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I bet it would make a fantastic report. |
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//this is not a means of execution.// Actually, now you
mention it.... |
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//it would make a fantastic report.// Indeed it would.
However, for noise-sensitive areas, the balls could be
replaced by fearsomely powerful spherical magnets, with
matching poles facing eachother. They would then transfer
momentum eerily and noislesslily contactlessly. |
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If not magnets then you'll need balls of fullerene.
I think that the energy from the impact of balls of steel that large colliding will be transfered to deformation of the spheres and dampen any sinusoidal wave after very few oscillations. |
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// They would then transfer momentum eerily and noislesslily contactlessly. // |
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Maxwell's silent dodgy giant Newton's cradle. |
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//you will need balls of steel, five// [marked-for-tagline] |
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//A pair of large office buildings on opposite sides of a road would do very nicely//
I see this as essentially a traffic calming measure. You certainly wouldn't catch me driving down that street...or walking...or going anywhere near it.
In fact, I'll go further and say that if mother nature had meant me to walk under a one ton, swinging ball of steel then she would have provided me with some rather sturdier head gear. Burn the scientist and all of his demonic ilk!
[rushes off to stir up angry mob of strangely ugly, pitch-fork wielding peasants] |
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//[rushes off to stir up angry mob of strangely ugly, pitch-fork wielding peasants]// That should be pretty easy, in Lewes. |
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//energy from the impact of balls of steel that large colliding
will be transfered to deformation of the spheres// Hmmm.
OK, so it's either the magnetic option, or rubber-coated
metal balls (and who wouldn't enjoy those?), or Very Strong
Steel. |
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//Each morning,...// But does that imply that it runs out of swing in under 24 hrs? I certainly do not want to be the poor person who has to stop these 1 ton balls swinging so that the // Delegated Official // gets to give it a new push. I guess the length of overall time of swinging depends a lot on how squiggy soft this steel really is. |
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A 1 tonne steel ball wouldn't be that big really (60ish
cm diameter?), steel weighs nearly 8 tonnes per cubic
metre. If you want them big and to make a great
noise, you'd need them hollow. |
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To reduce deformation, you could have a solid bar
running across the ball at the points of impact. |
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The place to set this up would be under a bridge. Bridges are long and they are strong. There are fewer things to hit underneath. I could see this being a public art project set up under a bridge (perhaps in a park?) for a special occasion. Or possibly guerrila art set up at night. For the latter, paper mache balls might be used for rapidity of construction. |
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