h a l f b a k e r yRenovating the wheel
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Strong magnets moving past a non-magnetic conductor such as
aluminium or copper experience a significant slowing force,
due to the creation of eddy currents in the conductor. The
classic experiment is a neodymium magnet dropped down a
length of copper pipe, wherein it falls very, very slowly.
This
clearly leads us to bowls. Bowls is an incredibly dull game
to watch, with only a flicker of excitement to be had in the
last few moments of the ball's roll. Sometimes, in televised
bowls, they replay these last moments in slow motion, to
make the most of this brief moment of non-dullness.
The solution, clearly, is to place a heavy copper sheet under
the area around the jack (which, I think, is the name for the
ball you're aiming for). Player's bowls would, of course,
contain a large and powerful rare-earth magnet.
With this set-up, the bowl would have to be launched with
tremendous speed, toward the jack and the underlying copper
disc. As it rolled over the copper disc, the bowl would slow as
if it had run into treacle and, thereafter, everything would
happen in magical slow-mo.
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The opposite would also be attractive - fast-mo. Slow mo could be acheived with instantaneous recording and screen projection play-back. |
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A more technically interesting variant might be a form of curling, where the ice sheet covers multiple superconducting loops cooled by LN2 and the lumps of rock are themselves superconductors filled with LN2. They are launched off a non-magnetic ice ramp into the field, and will promptly hover their way down the pitch (course ? run ? slide ? rink ?) and end up orbiting gently arond the target until their coolant boils away and they crash to the ground. |
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There are different types of bowls? I thought it was just pre-
and post-mortem. |
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It's widely acknowledged that bowls of any form is a type of practice for being dead, only less interesting. |
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Would it really continue to happen in slow motion? Or would the bowl merely de-accellerate to a halt? Surely the magnet falling very slowly continues to be attracted to the Earth, which provides a continuous force to keep it moving. What force keeps the bowl moving against the retardation force of the eddy currents? |
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Ah, but that is why the //bowl would have to be launched
with tremendous speed//. It will then //slow as if it had run
into treacle//. And then, as is the nature of things, it will
indeed stop. |
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The eddy currents will act very much like treacle: the faster
the bowl is moving, the stronger the eddies and hence the
more it will be slowed. When it is moving very slowly, the
eddies will be very small. So, the ball will go fast-fast-fast-
slow- slower-veryslow- stillveryslow- evenslower-stop. |
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So eddy currents are a component of friction and could be included at the molecular scale for treacle? |
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Sorry I thought Van der Waal forces were just tiny tiny eddy currents. |
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Wouldn't vertical bowls be a better solution? |
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//Van der Waal forces were just tiny tiny eddy currents// I
don't think so. I mean, everything comes down to electrons,
but I don't think VdW forces come down to eddy currents. |
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Ah yes, that gap where all the magic happens. |
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Read this as slow bowels, made even less sense. |
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Actually, it makes perfect sense - bowls for people who don't give a shit. |
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Hmm, vertical bowls...
Jack sits in the middle of a (very large) open field. Bowlsers
drop their balls from an aeroplane at ~2km altitude, with
appropriate spin and alignment to either land near the jack,
or "knock off" (ie. mutual disintegration on impact) an
opponents ball. Beginners use a (possibly tethered) hot air
balloon instead of an aeroplane.
(Aside: Google Chrome didn't know how to spell
"aeroplane".) |
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Will there be a choice of Norden or S.A.B.S. bombsighr ? |
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Given the high terminal velocity of the bowls, the greenskeeper is going to need a mechanical excavator to recover the embedded balls from the playing area. |
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//high terminal velocity// has already been addressed in the body, nay, title, of the above idea. |
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//bombsighr// Wasn't he one of the dwarves in The Hobbit? |
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