Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Yeah, I wish it made more sense too.

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Steam Cooled Rotary Engine

 aerodynamic.
 
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Place a smooth donut around it that encompasses the cylinders (as far as the exhaust ports), and pour water into it.

As the engine runs the water will boil and, steam being lighter than water, rise. However at 1200 rpm "up" is subject to interpretation: the steam will not only head for the axis of spin but, because of the great "gravity", do so *much* more quickly than it would at 1g. Fast enough that hot spots won't form on the cylinder walls. There it's cooled in a radiator (if necessary) and returned to the donut.

Any aerodynamic drag is on a smooth surface that can be faired to any shape, instead of a bunch of finned cylinder heads.

—FlyingToaster, Aug 06 2011

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       How about an illustrating drawing please?
—doanviettrung, Aug 12 2011
   

       not a holey donut, one of those ones filled with ham.
—FlyingToaster, Aug 12 2011
   

       jam.
—FlyingToaster, Aug 12 2011
   

       The shell turns with the engine... I guess I should've mentioned that.   

       As far as increased gas bubble buoyancy is concerned, that's a result of increased "gravity". If gravity is increased by g times, then the pressure on the underside of a solid body is increased g times and it will rise g times as fast (minus aquadrag).   

       But we're talking about a gas. Pressure would be linear with gravity, so the volume of a bubble will change to 1/g, but the surface area will change to 1/(g^1/2).   

       Upshot is an engine of 80kg, 50cm dia, 1200rpm, the edge is at 400G. So a bubble of air in water at the rim would want to rise to the axis 20 times more than a similar bubble in stationary water.   

       (okay I think I missed something in the math: air pressure offset?... but the principle's good)
—FlyingToaster, Sep 05 2011
   


 

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