Great for touchscreen, but tricky with a mouse. I would like to see an option for drawing gears where mouse down sets the center of a new gear and dragging away determines the radius.
Totally the first thing I thought of as well. Great idear.
Show HN: Sketch, connect and simulate gears and chains
21–30 of 59 posts
Re: Show HN: Sketch, connect and simulate gears and chains
#22I've always wondered -
Consider the following gear arrangement: http://snag.gy/Tvsgi.jpg
The tiniest push on the gear on the left causes the gear on the right to fly at thousands of RPM. Of course, there would be a ton of friction in the system to overcome. However, what if the left gear was a pinion connected to a rack that was pushed by an extremely powerful, yet slow-moving source, such as a glacier or tectonic plate? With enough gears in this arrangement, an unstoppable force moving just 1mm/year could spin tons of turbines.
Would this work?
Re: Show HN: Sketch, connect and simulate gears and chains
#23Love this! It's very intuitive and fun to draw gears of different sizes and hook them together.
I'd love to be able to make more complex gears. I immediately tried to make a compound gear set with three gears and two different bands.
That got me thinking about "Incredible-Machine" puzzle features and how fun it would be to actually try to build working things like clocks, bikes and machines with this.
Re: Show HN: Sketch, connect and simulate gears and chains
#24I've always wondered - Consider the following gear arrangement: http://snag.gy/Tvsgi.jpg The tiniest push on the gear on the left causes the gear on the right to fly at thousands of RPM. Of course, there would be a ton of friction in the system to overcome. However, what if the left gear was a pinion connected to a rack that was pushed by an extremely powerful, yet slow-moving source, such as a glacier or tectonic pl…
Great arrangement! It will work.
Whether it will be financially feasible to construct such a large system of gears, deploy it in extreme weather, keep it well oiled and maintain it, and then transport the generated power to a usable location are entirely different questions.
Re: Show HN: Sketch, connect and simulate gears and chains
#25At last, I have found the true purpose of my GNote II. Things get a lot more complex when you realize you can drag gears around with chains attatched after you place them...
Re: Show HN: Sketch, connect and simulate gears and chains
#26Uncaught TypeError: Type error - gearsketch_main.js:53
Am I the only one getting this? Chrome 28; Windows 7.
Re: Show HN: Sketch, connect and simulate gears and chains
#27I've always wondered - Consider the following gear arrangement: http://snag.gy/Tvsgi.jpg The tiniest push on the gear on the left causes the gear on the right to fly at thousands of RPM. Of course, there would be a ton of friction in the system to overcome. However, what if the left gear was a pinion connected to a rack that was pushed by an extremely powerful, yet slow-moving source, such as a glacier or tectonic pl…
Great arrangement! It will work. Whether it will be financially feasible to construct such a large system of gears, deploy it in extreme weather, keep it well oiled and maintain it, and then transport the generated power to a usable location are entirely different questions.
Hmm... maybe there are more common sources of strong-but-slow power. The heat expansion of bridges? The weight of vehicles sitting idly at a stoplight? The swaying of skyscrapers?
I wonder if you could make a purely mechanical solar panel that way. Get a giant sheet of metal, put it out in the sun, and attach this gear arrangement to it, braced by opposite sides of the expansion. Hmm... I kinda want to make this now.
Re: Show HN: Sketch, connect and simulate gears and chains
#28I've always wondered - Consider the following gear arrangement: http://snag.gy/Tvsgi.jpg The tiniest push on the gear on the left causes the gear on the right to fly at thousands of RPM. Of course, there would be a ton of friction in the system to overcome. However, what if the left gear was a pinion connected to a rack that was pushed by an extremely powerful, yet slow-moving source, such as a glacier or tectonic pl…
1. How is that calculated?
2. Is there a ready way to simulate it?
Re: Show HN: Sketch, connect and simulate gears and chains
#29I've always wondered - Consider the following gear arrangement: http://snag.gy/Tvsgi.jpg The tiniest push on the gear on the left causes the gear on the right to fly at thousands of RPM. Of course, there would be a ton of friction in the system to overcome. However, what if the left gear was a pinion connected to a rack that was pushed by an extremely powerful, yet slow-moving source, such as a glacier or tectonic pl…
Of course it would "work". So would a lever - ask Archimedes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Archimedes_lever_(Small).j...
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Re: Show HN: Sketch, connect and simulate gears and chains
#30I've always wondered - Consider the following gear arrangement: http://snag.gy/Tvsgi.jpg The tiniest push on the gear on the left causes the gear on the right to fly at thousands of RPM. Of course, there would be a ton of friction in the system to overcome. However, what if the left gear was a pinion connected to a rack that was pushed by an extremely powerful, yet slow-moving source, such as a glacier or tectonic pl…
Think about how large the forces will be at the first tooth interface at the left (or in the rack). How strong does that tooth need to be?
Alternatively, you can use it the other way. Connect the gear at left to a tectonic plate. Rest your finger on the gear at right. Voila! You can exert a force great enough to stop the tectonic plate's motion. Plausible?
When Archimedes said, "Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I'll move the Earth.", he actually meant something more like, "Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I'll change the momentum of the Earth very very very slowly. Unless that lever is incredibly strong and I have access to a considerable source of energy."