If every electron in the universe came over and cranked that first gear around a hundred times, it still wouldn't be enough to make the last gear visibly move.
A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]
11–20 of 115 posts
Re: A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]
#12Why can't it spin faster?
After an hour, the 10th gear hasn't perceptibly moved. If you went 10x faster, the 11th gear wouldn't have perceptibly moved. At 100x faster, and you still won't see motion in the 12th gear. For every gear you want to see move, you'll need to spin the first gear exponentially faster!
Re: A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]
#13Part 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.
All this time we've been fussing about clean energy and perpetual motion machines when all we needed was this machine to apply essentially infinite leverage and generate a universe of energy at the flick of the wrist
Re: A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]
#14Part 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.
In the hour-long video, from the start to the end, only the first seven gears move visibly, and the 8th moves maybe a pixel. You probably couldn't move anything past the 3rd or 4th gear with your hand, depending on how low-friction the bearings are, how strong you are, and how little you care about hurting your hand. You could attach a long lever to one, but that'll only get you one, maybe two gears further.
Re: A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]
#15In the same vein, check out "Machine with Concrete" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q-BH-tvxEg
The post says this is what inspired it.
Re: A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]
#16Part 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.
Yes, especially if you have a physical system I am curious what happen (eg, do we shear the axel somewhere?)
Re: A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]
#17If every electron in the universe came over and cranked that first gear around a hundred times, it still wouldn't be enough to make the last gear visibly move.
[deleted]
Re: A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]
#18Part 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.
I'd like to think there would be a way to turn it, but I'm fairly confident it isn't possible. With that much mechanical advantage, no material will stay together. I'm not sure whether the frame/axles will break first or if it would just strip the gear teeth.
Re: A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]
#19Part 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.
You would need a tremendous amount of torque to move the last gear, because gears multiply the angular velocity on one side and multiply the torque on the other. If it took one newton-meter (about the weight of one apple on a lever a meter away from the gear) to move the first gear, it would take a googol newton-meters applied at the other end of the device.
Re: A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]
#20Part 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.
In the hour-long video, from the start to the end, only the first seven gears move visibly, and the 8th moves maybe a pixel. You probably couldn't move anything past the 3rd or 4th gear with your hand, depending on how low-friction the bearings are, how strong you are, and how little you care about hurting your hand. You could attach a long lever to one, but that'll only get you one, maybe two gears further.
Yeah, but that's just an engineering problem.