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I'm working in Atlanta this week. Yes, yes, it's very nice weather, thanks for asking.
As I flew, it occured to me that the cabin crew choose their timing for the drinks service to co-incide with the flat bits of the flight. This is clearly for my personal safety - a glass on an angle is obviously
dangerous.
"A self levelling glass would be a glass would be rather useful for planes and train journeys" I said, which was not what the stewardess was expecting in reply to her "chicken or beef" question.
The base of the glass is filled with water - this provides a useful and pleasing weight to the receptacle. Water finds its own level, thus, when the plane is at 30degs, the water will find its horizon.
The glass itself floats on top of the water base which is fully sealed to prevent spillages. Thus, the glass also finds it's level ensuring that the drink itself remains in the glass.
[drawing welcome, if anyone has time]
Liquid Caddy
http://www.boatshow...com/LiquidCaddy.htm
I thought gimbals might work better, and after a bit of googling..... [wagster, Apr 19 2005]
balancing scooter
http://tlb.org/scooter.html
could use this technology [andrew1, Apr 20 2005]
2 wheeled balancing skateboard
http://www.ebikes.c.../Emanual/Index.html
or this (not much use as a skateboard but pretty cool transport if ure drunk) [andrew1, Apr 20 2005]
[link]
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The centre of gravity of the drink would be above the centre of buoyancy, so it will behave like an upside-down pendulum. Stability will, unfortunately, be impossible. |
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Maybe if they used mercury instead of water in the bottom part? |
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edited [absinthewithoutleave] and good idea with the mercury base. That'll also give it a rather nice metallic finish. |
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//good idea with the mercury base. That'll also give it a rather nice metallic finish// |
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Not sure you'd be allowed to take the mercury on the plane though chaps. Also, as [david] points out, tis flawed. I like the concept (and was after such a product when flying on sunday) but fear the actuals need some work. |
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neat. [+] you could dampen the oscillations of the pendulum problem with some viscosity or by how you're fixing the top part to the bottom. |
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Getting it tuned just right to respond quickly to oscillations & level changes, and yet slow enough to be stable is just a classic PID tuning issue, of which any decent mechanical or electrical engineer would have done tons of similar exercises in college. |
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Is this all that necessary on a plane? In my experience, it's the sudden ups and downs from turbulence that gets my drink out of the glass. |
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Is it not true that most of the time, the force on your seat is pretty much perpendicular to the floor, unless something catastrophic is about to happen? (like in the origin of the phrase: flying by the seat of your pants) |
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This is why you order spirits and down them quickly, quickly, before the plane goes angled again. |
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(This worked well for when I flew to Israel, and was actually on the ground, late at night in the hotel bar, and the whole world was spinning on its axis: good timing and promptness on Jaeger-bombing ensured I never spilled my drink despite the extreme turbulence inherent in the situation.) |
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why dont yo use gyroscopes,computers etc like in balancing scooters and the like [see link] |
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I see where this is going: |
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I can see an inner glass with beverage stably floating in the water of the tilted outer glass like a ballasted ship (the level of the inner liquid being lower than that of the outer). On the other hand, keeping the system sealed while allowing full movement of the inner glass would be a problem. Also when one tries to drink from the glasses, the inner glass would not tilt towards the mouth. |
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Good; the base could even be a concave depression in the fold-down table. Keep the glass low and wide. |
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Airplane spills are probably more due to quick jerks than from smooth turns. |
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Overall, it sounds like all of this would work better for slower tilting/rocking motions like what you'd get on a watercraft, than an airplane, but still has applications and is quite inventive. |
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