A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]

I'm sure it can spin a bit faster. Why can't it spin so fast that the final wheel visibly turns? Well the first wheels would melt from friction or be torn apart before then, and where are you going to get that much energy to turn them so fast? At some point there's the speed of light as a limit as well.

Re: A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]

#5

Post by wrkronmiller » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 11:51 PM UTC

Valgrim wrote: post #2

What happens to the energy used to rotate the device? Is it dissipated as heat before it reaches too far?

Probably, but I think even in a frictionless system you could still get the same effect.

I suspect even if slip between teeth, slack in system, etc... was eliminated you could still get the same effect.

The amount of energy in the system isn't the same thing as the amount of movement, so in a perfectly efficient system (I think) the initial gear would spin faster than the final gear but the final gear would turn with more force (same amount of energy).

Re: A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]

#6

Post by robertfw » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 11:58 PM UTC

In the same vein, check out "Machine with Concrete" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q-BH-tvxEg

Re: A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]

#7

Post by aj7 » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 11:58 PM UTC

I bet the zero point fluctuation motion of the last gear dwarfs the deterministic motion.

Re: A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]

#8

Post by _underfl0w_ » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 11:58 PM UTC

Part of me likes to thing something crazy would happen if you turned it from the other end. Turn one gear once and the gear at the far other end turns a googol times but melts somewhere around a trillion rotations. Almost doesn't feel too outlandish given a scope that already includes "more energy than the entire known universe has" (per the article) for a measurement.

Re: A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]

#9

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 07, 2020, 12:01 AM UTC

Valgrim wrote: post #2

What happens to the energy used to rotate the device? Is it dissipated as heat before it reaches too far?

[deleted]

Re: A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]

#10

Post by Benjammer » Sat, Mar 07, 2020, 12:01 AM UTC

The original mentioned, Arthur Ganson's Machine with Concrete, is quite a bit more artistic. The end is cast in concrete.

The idea is that there is a certain amount of energy lost as friction in each gear, per turn. If you calculate the gear ratios and how many turns of the earlier gears would be required to make the final gear move, even infinitesimally, the amount of energy lost becomes more than all the energy in the known universe. It's not really about RPMs.